Common sense isn’t common – that’s becoming a remarkably “common” expression these days. But when it comes to government policies, a lack of common sense is more than just annoying – it has strong impacts on people’s lives.
The Province of Ontario is switching to a new system on January 1, 2025 that will see the responsibility for recycling shifted from municipalities to the producers of the packaging. This makes theoretical sense, but unfortunately, there are flaws in the policy that anyone with common sense could figure out, the policy-writers themselves notably excluded.
On May 30, a resident of a mixed use residential and commercial property in Winchester sent an email to Danielle Ward – the Township of North Dundas’ Director of Environment Services. The resident asked a simple question: Given that the residences are located on a property that also has commercial use, will recycling still be picked up in the new year?
The new Blue Box Program changes include a stipulation that it will “not require producers to provide blue box services in the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors”. An exception is listed in the legislation for multi-residential units, but what happens when the building is a mix of residential and commercial? Danielle Ward doesn’t know yet. It’s not her fault – the province has been unclear. She wrote in an email reply to the Winchester resident:
“There is conflicting information regarding commercial properties coming from the province, and locally, however based on my discussions with the contractor taking over the route (recycling), they would not collect your location as it is associated with a commercial zone / property.”
When writing this policy, was there no thought given to how such ambiguous wording could easily railroad some dwellers, but not others? Why is it so simple for laypeople to spot flaws in policy, while those being paid big bucks to write the policies have no clue?
This seems to be a provincial government streak. The Canada-Ontario agreement under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program is another Province of Ontario brainchild with anything but brains. It only covers children up to kindergarten age. The cutoff is senseless. Some centres – such as in centres that serve both kindergarten and school-age children – have some children that qualify for a discount while others don’t. Oh, what confusion this causes! Either extend the fee reduction to all, or cut it off after the toddler years, since childcare fees are typically much shorter for much shorter care time once kindergarten comes!
The other issue with Ontario’s handling of CWELCC is that in some cases, it hurts rather than helps. Parents are not allowed to opt out of the program, yet there is only so much funding to go around. There is, in fact, a childcare centre in Winchester that has a demand for more kindergarten spaces, but the request has been put on hold because extra spaces are not currently in the CWELCC budget. A program designed to increase childcare accessibility by making it more affordable is therefore limiting the total number of spaces in some centres instead! Over what? Not wanting to pay a fee reduction that amounts to just $19 per month for the kindergarten age group! Talk about lending parents an unhelping hand and making a fuss over nothing!
Common sense is truly not common in the Government of Ontario right now. Those of us who can spot the obvious flaws wonder why we’re able to do so for free, when paid government officials can’t seem to see the forest for the trees, or the trees for the forest, or any trees or forest for that matter. The CWELCC program is unlikely to have its kinks worked out anytime soon. As for the Blue Box Program, the next update is expected sometime around October 2024.
Common sense may not be common, but government incompetence certainly is, and it’s not getting any cuter.
