Reviews Are In: Balanced Ontario Liberal Budget helps families and builds for the future
QUEEN'S PARK, ON, April 27, 2017 /CNW/ - Today's balanced Ontario Liberal Budget makes investments that will help families, create opportunities and build for the future.
Linda Jeffrey, Mayor, City of Brampton
"Brampton has the youngest population of the 10 largest cities in the country, with many young families calling our city home. OHIP+ Children and Youth Pharmacare, which is going to fully cover the cost of prescription medication for everyone 24 years and under regardless of family income, will truly help the residents of my City."
Jerry Dias, President, Unifor
"It's unacceptable that anyone must choose between filling their prescriptions and paying their bills. Ontario has cracked open the door with partial coverage for those under 24."
Natalie Mehra, Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition
"This is an amazing announcement that will provide national leadership… This is a great first step in the right direction."
Dave Bumler, President, AMAPCEO
"As someone who has worked in healthcare for most of my career, I want to applaud the government for taking a cautious first step toward pharmacare-lite."
Linda Franklin, President and CEO, Colleges Ontario
"The Ontario government is making a tremendous investment into our young people's future success. This will help more students acquire the skills and talents to pursue meaningful employment when they graduate. In this new age of innovation and accelerating automation, it is critical that graduates have the qualifications and technical skills to make a meaningful difference in the workplace. The new Career Kick-Start Strategy clearly establishes that this is a priority in Ontario and will further enrich the career-focused programs at our colleges."
David Lindsay, President and CEO, Council of Ontario Universities
"Career Kick-Start is the kind of collaboration that will provide the work-related learning opportunities so crucial to helping graduates launch their careers, while also connecting employers to the emerging members of our skilled and talented workforce.
Universities are hearing more and more that meeting Ontario's economic and social challenges will depend on building stronger partnerships with employers and governments. This new program is an example of how we can all pull together for a better future for students and for the province."
Linda Davis, Past-President of Business & Professional Women of Ontario
"As a former Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee member, I applaud the government's announcement today for additional funding towards child care subsidies in Ontario. Working parents often opt out of the workplace due to the high cost of childcare. With this initiative to increase government subsidies, families now have other options. I understand these subsidies will begin to roll out in the coming months and it can't be too soon for our struggling Ontario families. We look forward to this and many more investments by government as we move toward the Steering Committee's recommendations to close the gender wage gap in Ontario."
Mark Daley, Associate Vice-President (Research), Western University
"Partnerships with industry provide an extremely important way for us to take knowledge generated on our campuses and better apply it to benefit our communities. Today's announcement by the Government of Ontario is an investment in innovation and training that will make companies more competitive, enable new discoveries, empower our students to develop new skills, and create new opportunities for prosperity across the province."
Alejandro Adem, CEO and Scientific Director, Mitacs
"Today's announcement highlights the importance of creating training and research opportunities to ensure Ontario's graduate students and postdoctoral fellows have the career skills they need to easily transition into the job market. We are grateful for the Government of Ontario's support and we look forward to working with the province's post-secondary institutions, businesses, and organizations to build the next generation of innovation leaders."
Canadian Federation of Independent Business
"The budget provides for property tax reduction on agri-businesses that run some small-scale commercial activities on their farms. This is welcome news to farmers who sell their products on the farm."
Jamie Cleary, President, Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
"We have always been strong advocates for experiential learning. Knowing the value of this type of learning for students, it is encouraging to see the government making an investment that will ease their transition from school to their future careers."
Rajean Hoilett, Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario
"It is refreshing to see the government continuing to propose new programs and initiatives to improve access to post-secondary education."
SOURCE Liberal Caucus Service Bureau
416-325-9138
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