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Family Day Will Give Hard-Working Ontarians More Time To Spend With Loved Ones

TORONTO — Premier Dalton McGuinty has proposed a new holiday in February which would recognize the importance of Ontario families by giving hard-working Ontarians more time to spend with the people they love.

Adding Family Day to the calendar will give Ontario workers a total of nine long weekends per year. This puts Ontario on par with Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Territories.

Family Day is one more step the Ontario Liberals are taking to strengthen our province by strengthening its people.

Now, it’s time to reward hard-working Ontarians with that most precious of gifts — time to spend with one another. The new holiday would recognize Ontarians’ achievements, reward their hard work, and give them a much-needed day to rest and recharge.

“We all spend our time differently,” said McGuinty, “but we can all agree we would love to have more time to spend doing the things that bring us closer together and that enrich our lives, deepen our friendships and nourish our souls.”

McGuinty Government Announces Aging at Home Strategy Modeled on St. Lawrence Community

Local Innovation Celebrated as Inspiration for $700M Program to Support Ontario Seniors

Toronto -- Toronto Centre Liberal Candidate George Smitherman, who also serves as Ontario's health minister, today thanked leaders from the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood for helping to inflence the province's new Aging at Home Strategy.

At a meeting held at the Performing Hearts Lodge, Smitherman briefed area residents on the McGuinty Government's new strategy that will allow seniors to live independently in their homes longer.

Smitherman observed that the foundation of the strategy would look familliar to members of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood given it provided the inspiration for the new provincial initiative. "The Dixon Hall model, which delivers supports to seniors in four area apartment buildings, is exactly the kind of thing we need to expand across the province," Smitherman said. "It's yet another example of where something I learned here at home has inflenced healthcare policy provincewide."

The $700M Aging at Home Strategy was announced earlier today by Premier Dalton McGuinty in Don Mills. New funding of x million, growing to y million in the third year, will be available to support a wide array of services and programs. In this way, the McGuinty Government is seeking to allow Ontario's seniors to carry on in the place they know best, their own home. Twenty percent of all resources will be dedicated to supporting community-based initiatives delivered by non-traditional provders, such as service clubs, ethnocultural organizations or groups of seniors themselves. Your browser may not support display of this image.

The Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, which encompasses about 600,000 people in Toronto, will initiate planning immediately for services set to commence on April 1, 2008

Dixon Hall's Supportive Housing Project for Seniors program has a helped many seniors in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood meet their health and social needs so that they may continue to live independently in their own apartment homes. Currently, Dixon Hall is providing this program to residents in Old York Tower (85 The Esplanade), Performing Arts Lodge (110 The Esplanade), Older Women's Network Co-op (115 The Esplanade), and New Hibret Co-op (2 Market Street).

The McGuinty Government
CELEBRATES ONTARIO'S ARTISTS
New website addresses their specific needs

Toronto, August 10, 2007 -- Artist's unique needs are addressed in a new website created by the McGuinty government specifically for artists and arts organizations. www.ontarioartist.ca is now the online source of information and links to funding, training, marketing and government support.

And, starting in 2008, the first weekend in June will become widely known as the annual Celebrate the Artist Weekend, according to the new Status of Ontario's Artists Act that was passed in the Ontario Legislature on May 10.

This new act is just one step in the McGuinty government's strategy to help our artists make a better living. Other steps include the creation of new training and apprenticeship opportunities for artists and providing specialized marketing and business skills development to artists through local Small Business Enterprise Centres.

Artists have a profound impact on Ontario's economy and quality of life. The culture sector generates $19.7 billion of Ontario's gross domestic product and more than 252,000 jobs. (Statistics Canada, March 2007)

In the 2007 budget the McGuinty government committed to boosting annual funding to the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) by 38 per cent to $55 million over the next three years. The council is an agency of the government and is the province's primary source of support for artists, writers, performers and creative organizations. In 2005-06, the OAC provided funding to nearly 1,300 individual artists and 836 organizations in 253 communities across Ontario.

Many other grants, awards, programs and services to help Ontario's artists earn a living are currently available. Visit the Spotlight page at www.ontarioartist.ca for more information.

McGuinty Government Helping Crown Wards Succeed Tuition Grants, Mentoring Program To Help Some Of Ontario’s Most Vulnerable Youth Pursue Higher Education

Premier Dalton McGuinty recently announced new investments that will help send kids under the Province’s care to college, university or apprenticeship training. The McGuinty government is building on the upfront Access grants introduced in the Reaching Higher Plan with new tuition grants for all current and former Crown wards. Starting in fall 2008, the government will provide current and former Crown wards who are already eligible for Access grants with new grants covering half their third and fourth year’s tuition costs up to a maximum of $3,000 each year. In addition, current and former Crown wards in programs less than two years will also be newly eligible for a tuition grant of up to $3,000. The McGuinty government will also cover the college and university application fees for Crown wards starting in 2008. The government is also investing $500,000 to set up four education championship teams — in Toronto, London, Ottawa and Thunder Bay — made up of advocates and experts from children’s aid societies, local school boards and colleges and universities. The teams will offer mentoring, tutoring and counselling to help Crown wards complete high school and transition to college, university or apprenticeship training. The program will eventually be available throughout the province.

McGuinty government Launches Life-Saving HPV Immunization Program New, Free Vaccines To Be Offered to Young Women In Grade Eight This Fall

The Ontario government recently announced that it will offer free vaccines to young women in Grade 8 to protect against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a cause of cervical cancer. Beginning this fall, the HPV vaccine will be offered to about 84,000 young women in Grade 8. The McGuinty government will invest $117 million over three years in this program. The school-based vaccination will be administered by public health nurses on a voluntary basis with consent forms and information provided to parents and guardians ahead of time. The HPV virus is a common virus transmitted through sexual activity that causes genital warts and cervical cancer. Every year in Ontario, about 500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 140 die from the disease. Although the vaccine provides protection against HPV, it is not a replacement for cervical cancer screening. Regular cervical cancer screening along with the vaccine, provide the best protection against cervical cancer. Investing in vaccines to prevent cancer is just one more example of how, working together, Ontarians have achieved results in public health.

 

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