Morning Coffee – By Aaron Hall

Weather forecast for Thursday, March 29, 2018

Today – Periods of rain or drizzle. Fog patches dissipating this morning. Wind becoming north 20 km/h this afternoon. High 6.

Tonight – Rain ending overnight then cloudy. Wind north 20 km/h. Low plus 1.

Ontario invests in health care, child care and mental health in Budget 2018

On Wednesday the Ontario government released the 2018 Budget, which includes significant new investments in health care, child care, home care and mental health, and new measures to create more job opportunities for people across the province.

The Budget also focuses on initiatives that make life more affordable and provide more financial security during a time of rapid economic change.

Ontario’s economy is getting stronger, with the unemployment rate at its lowest in almost two decades. Yet between the rising cost of living and stable, long-term jobs becoming harder to find, many people are struggling to take care of themselves and their families. As the changing economy widens the gaps within our society, the government has a plan to build a fairer, better Ontario by supporting everyone in the province with the care and opportunity they need to get ahead.

Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance, introduced the Budget in the legislature on Thursday.

If passed, Ontario would expand OHIP+ with free prescription drugs for everyone 65 and over, improve mental health care and addictions services, and introduce free preschool child care for children aged two-and-a-half until eligible for kindergarten.

“Ontario’s economy is getting stronger, businesses are creating record numbers of jobs and unemployment is at the lowest rate in almost two decades,” stated Sousa in a press release.

“Our budget is balanced. We have a $600-million surplus. Now, we are using our strengthened fiscal position to make life more affordable for families and create new opportunity for businesses across the province. The 2018 Budget will include new investments in health care, child care and seniors care to help even more families get ahead.”

Investing in Care

Ontario is helping ease the mounting pressure that individuals and families are facing and giving them every opportunity to care for their loved ones by:

– Introducing the new Seniors’ Healthy Home Program. This recognizes the costs associated with older seniors living at home, where they want to be. It provides a benefit of up to $750 annually for eligible households led by seniors 75 and over to help them live independently and offset the costs of maintaining their homes.

– Introducing a new Ontario Drug and Dental Program, reimbursing 80 per cent, up to a maximum of $400 per single person, $600 per couple and $700 for a family of four with two children, of eligible prescription drug and dental expenses each year, for those without workplace health benefits or not covered by OHIP+ or other government programs.

– Providing more affordable, quality child care by making preschool child care free for children aged two-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten. This saves a family with one child $17,000, on average, and builds on the savings families get from full-day kindergarten. Early learning has been demo nstrated to improve children’s academic performance throughout their lives.

– Providing better and faster access to mental health and addictions services for hundreds of thousands more children, young people and adults across Ontario — bringing the total funding to more than $17 billion over four years.

– Improving hospitals by providing better access to care, reducing wait times, addressing capacity issues and better meeting the needs of Ontario’s growing and aging population through an additional $822-million investment in 2018–19 — the largest single government investment in hospitals in almost a decade. The Province is also investing approximately $19 billion over 10 years to build and renovate hospitals to provide more and faster health care for people.

– Creating 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next 10 years — adding 5,000 new beds by 2022 — to help people who can no longer live independently and provide peace of mind for people who care for them. These new beds are in addition to the 30,000 existing beds being redeveloped.

– Building a fair society and enhancing choice and independence by investing $1.8 billion to strengthen services for 47,000 adults with developmental disabilities and reforming the social assistance system to focus on people rather than on rules and regulations.

Making Life More Affordable

Families are facing mounting pressures — whether at work or on their commute or in their pocketbook — and it’s having a real impact on people’s lives and our ability to care for our loved ones. Ontario is taking steps to make life more affordable and provide more financial security during a time of rapid economic change:

– Making prescriptions completely free for everyone 65 and over through OHIP+, ensuring that no senior citizen ever needs to go without necessary drugs. By eliminating the Ontario Drug Benefit annual deductible and co-pay, this saves the average Ontario senior $240 per year. This expansion of OHIP+ follows the introduction of free prescriptions for everyone under the age of 25 in the 2017 Ontario Budget.

– Providing a public transit tax credit that saves seniors up to $450 a year, as of July 1, 2017, and lowering the cost of commuting by about $720 per year for the average commuter transferring between the GO/UP Express network and the TTC.

– Cutting residential electricity bills as of July 1, 2017, by 25 per cent on average, and up to 40 or 50 per cent for eligible rural and low-income families.

Creating Opportunity for People

Ontario is helping people adapt to, and thrive in, a changing economy to make sure the province remains the best place to live, work and do business. Actions include:

– Making college and university tuition free for more than 225,000 students of all ages. Free or low tuition is available for students from low- and middle-income families; tuition is free for those earning up to $90,000, and students from families who earn up to $175,000 are also eligible for financial aid.

– Preparing students for good jobs by providing $132 million over three years to develop postsecondary education programs that respond to the changing needs of students and employers — including strengthening partnerships with local employers, offering more flexible and experiential learning, and increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates by 25 per cent over the next five years, from 40,000 to 50,000 per year.

– Planning to create and retain over 70,000 jobs by renewing and extending the Jobs and Prosperity Fund with an increase of $900 million over the next 10 years.

– Providing $935 million in new fun ding over three years through the Good Jobs and Growth Plan to support Ontario businesses, students and graduates, and help attract good, well-paying jobs.

– Making workplaces fairer for everyone by tackling the gender wage gap and increasing transparency in hiring processes with proposed legislation that would, if passed, require all publicly posted jobs to include a pay rate or salary scale.

– Providing a long-awaited raise for 1.2 million people across Ontario by increasing the minimum wage to $14 per hour on January 1, 2018 and $15 per hour on January 1, 2019.

Provincial officials say the province has beaten its fiscal targets every year since the recession, and is forecasting a budget surplus in 2017–18. Beginning in 2018–19, Ontario is choosing to make more investments in the care and services that the people of this province rely on. As a result, the province will run modest deficits of less than one per cent of GDP. The Budget outlines a path back to balance by 20 24–25, building on the province’s long track record of responsible fiscal management.

More details:

– The government is choosing to make new investments of $20.3 billion over the next three years to support vital public services that people in Ontario rely on, focusing on priority areas such as health care, education, child care, seniors, social services, growing the economy and creating good jobs.

– Since the recession, Ontario’s economy has gained over 800,000 net new jobs. The unemployment rate has steadily declined to a 17-year low in February 2018, and has remained below the national average for 34 consecutive months.

– Since 2014, Ontario’s economy has grown more than Canada’s and all other G7 countries.

Easter weekend municipal hours in Chatham-Kent

Municipal offices, including service counters, will be closed on Friday March 30 and Monday April 2 for the Easter holiday weekend.

Other services are scheduled as follows:

EMERGENCY SERVICES – Police, Fire and Ambulance are operational 24 hours a day, every day, and are accessible by dialling “911” for emergency calls only.

LIBRARIES – All public libraries will be closed Friday March 30 and Monday April 2 and will have normal operational hours on Saturday.

RECREATION FACILITY OPERATIONS – Blenheim and Thames Campus Arenas will be open on the holidays of Good Friday, March 30 and Easter Sunday, April 1 for scheduled rentals. All other arenas will be closed.

RECREATION SERVICES – The Blenheim Gable Rees Rotary Pool and the Wallaceburg Sydenham Pool will be closed Friday and Sunday, with regular hours Saturday and Monday. Both pools have an additional open swim on Monday starting at 1:30 p.m. with the After School Swim cancelled at the Wallaceburg Sydenham Pool.

CULTURAL SERVICES – The Thames Art Gallery and the Chatham-Kent Museum will be closed on Friday & Monday and open regular hours on Saturday & Sunday. ARTspace will be closed on Friday, Sunday and Monday, open regular hours on Saturday. Ridge House Museum will be closed Friday and open regular hours Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Box Office and administration offices at the Cultural Centre will be closed Friday through Monday.

CEMETERY OPERATIONS – The municipal Cemeteries administrative office will be closed Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2. During this time, cemeteries staff will be available on call for funeral homes who are in need of at-need lot sales or interment orders. There will be no interments permitted on Good Friday. Area funeral homes have been provided with a list of required advance notice times to arrange burials over the Easter Holiday weekend

GARBAGE AND RECYCLING – Collection services will only be affected by Good Friday (March 30). Those residents who would normally receive curbside collection on Friday, March 30 will receive it on Saturday, March 31. There are no collection changes for the week of April 2 (Easter Monday). Refer to the 2018 Recycling and Waste Collection Guide for further details.

TRANSFER STATIONS – The Harwich Transfer Station and Wallaceburg Transfer Stations will be closed on Good Friday (March 30), but open on Monday, April 2. All other transfer stations will be open their regular hours.

CHATHAM LEAF AND YARD DEPOT – Will be closed on Good Friday (March 30), but open on Monday, April 2.

PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT- PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Payments can be made during this time on-line at www.paytickets.ca . If your licence is suspended you should attend at a Service Ontario Office to pay your fine and reinstatement fee so that your licence will be reinstated without delay.

CK TRANSIT – CK Transit services will not be operating on Friday March 30.

HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES BUILDING – (435 Grand Avenue West, Chatham) – The Health and Family Services building including the offices of Public Health, Employment & Social Services, Housing Services and Child Care and Early Years will be closed Friday March 30, and Monday April 2. The Employment Resource Centres located at 240 King Street West, Chatham and 786 Dufferin Avenue, Wallaceburg, will also be closed during this time.

The Employment Resource Centres located at 240 King St. W., Chatham and 786 Dufferin Avenue, Wallaceburg will also be closed during this time. For Homeless Emergencies please contact the Chatham-Kent Homeless Response Line at 519-354-6628

PUBLIC HEALTH CLINIC SERVICES – Services located at 177 King Street East, Chatham will be closed Friday March 30 and Monday April 2. Essential public health services are available by calling 1-866-446-8207.

RIVERVIEW GARDENS – Reception and Administrative offices will be closed Friday March 30 and Monday April 2. Services, activities and visiting hours continue as normal over the holiday weekend. Nursing staff can be reached 24/7 by calling 519.352.4823.

PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION (PUC) at 325 Grand Avenue East will be closed Friday and Monday. The emergency call number is 519-352-6300.

TOURISM – The Chatham-Kent tourism office will be closed Friday, March 30 through Monday, April 2. Information may be accessed online at https://www.chatham-kent.ca/Tourism/home

ENTEGRUS at 320 Queen Street will be closed Friday and Monday.

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance services altered for Good Friday and Easter Monday 2018

Some healthcare services offered at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance’s Chatham and Wallaceburg sites will be altered on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018 in recognition of the Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays.

Routine X-rays, electrocardiograms (EKG), and ultrasounds will not be available on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018. These departments will be staffed to meet the needs of inpatients and emergencies.

Ambulatory Care Services, Out-Patient Rehabilitation Services, Pre-Surgical Screening Services, Diabetes Education Centre, the TIA and CAD Clinics, Pulmonary Function Lab, Outpatient Lab Services, Health Records and Patient Appointment Offices will be closed on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018.

The Chatham-Kent Mental Health and Addictions Program Out-Patient Department will be closed on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018. For any immediate crisis, please call the crisis line at 1-866-299-7447 or visit the Emergency Room.

Elston Pharmacy, located at the Chatham Site, will be closed on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018.

The Oncology/Chemotherapy Department will be closed on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018.

The Business Office and Cashier’s Office will be closed on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018. Please note there are two bill changers in the building to accommodate change for coin.

Hemodialysis Care will be open on Friday, March 30 and Monday, April 2, 2018.

The Emergency Departments located at Chatham and Wallaceburg hospital sites are open 24 hours daily.