Back to school was once again in the spotlight during the premier's daily COVID-19 briefing.
SCHOOL BUSES AND DRIVERS
Ford says he has followed up with the Transportation Ministry on the backlog of first-time school bus drivers waiting for their licence approval. NEWSTALK1010 is still waiting on data from the premier's office on just how many applications are in the backlog.
But Ford said today that he has asked the ministry to expedite the process in order to add as many school bus drivers as possible to avoid any potential shortage.
"They said they're going to expedite all of the people that are waiting to go through the Ministry of Transportation and that's exactly what we're doing... We're all over that," Ford says. "But we'll have enough school buses, we're putting over a billion dollars into the transportation system."
This comes the same day Unifor representatives and a handful of school bus drivers convened in Scarborough to highlight some of their major concerns ahead of the return to school. One of which was a lack of clarity coming from the province.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said, that's not the case, and the province is concerned about the health and safety of drivers.
"With respect to the challenges, specifically for COVID, given that they're older workers and there's some concerns related to their health. We have provided guidance to school boards to ensure the full suite of PPE, not just masking, including face shields, are provided to our drivers, that there is a mandate like there is in schools for masking for students that go on it, there's assigned seating which is really critical for contact management and tracing," Lecce said.
AD CAMPAIGNS
Over the past 24 hours the province has been criticized for a recent back-to-school ad campaign it's been undertaking. Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca has called them propaganda, and the official opposition — the NDP — has also spoken against them.
Critics say the money from this campaign should be spent on urgent education needs ahead of the school year, specifically on reduced class sizes, more teachers, and more sanitization.
"It's critical that the parents know, you know, it's not about playing politics like the other ones are doing, I believe in communicating to the parents, the teachers and as well to the students," Ford said. "Imagine if we didn't have any ads and no one knew what was going on. That'd be terrible. We have to. And that’s the same with the federal government, municipal government, so all three levels of government are running ads and I encourage it."
The premier also noted that the government is spending money when the media industry has suffered because of the pandemic.
"Matter of fact, I find it ironic, because we're spending tons of media — money with the media, which they're in desperate need of because so many people pulled back their advertising and a lot of media outlets... thanked us and especially in the ethnic media as well, about putting money in advertising."
The premier promised that the money spent on this campaign will be transparent and that the accountability office will have all of the numbers.
CYBER BULLYING OF EDUCATION MINISTER
NEWSTALK1010 brought you the story on Monday. Education Minister Stephen Lecce was trashed on social media after attending a colleague's wedding over the weekend. Specifically, some teachers taunted him online.
His clothes and the fact that he doesn't have any children were key messages being spread. One expert says it's a cut and dry case of cyber bullying.
So what does the education minister have to say about it?
"Look, I think what's important is that for political actors that get into government that they have a duty, a solemn obligation just to get up in the morning every day and try to improve the quality of life, the safety of their constituents. I am unmoved from my task, notwithstanding the noise on Twitter," Lecce said in response. "I do think as leaders - which we all are - we have to lead by example. And I think people are looking to us for that sense of leadership, of decency and civility in the public discourse."
COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS
There has been a lot of discussion about the return to school, but with that has come confusion.
Today, the premier committed to having a teleconference with every board chair, deputy chair and education director in the province to try and clear things up.
"I’ve asked Minister Lecce, along with our secretary of cabinet, along with my chief of staff - that I want to get on the phone call... and we're going to lay out very, very clear and we're going to answer any questions until there's no confusion. No one's going out there and saying, ‘It hasn't been communicated'," Ford said. "But I think communication is critical. Maybe they don't. I think communication is critical to the people. And we're going to continue communicating the message, no matter if it was at the beginning about PPE, about social distancing, about long-term care, or if it's about education, we're going to continue moving forward on that."