I am a PhD candidate and…

I am a PhD candidate and Political Science Instructor at a prominent Ontario University. I hope that the current government will not implement the proposed act, given its high likelihood of causing economic problems for countless Ontario citizens.

The Schedule 9 proposed amendments to the Employment Standards Act would be an assault on the rights of Ontario's most vulnerable workers, and would result in an overall loss of overtime income for many hardworking people. Schedule 9's proposal to stop requiring employers to post the Employment Standards Act in workplaces would also further remove workers from knowledge of their legal rights.

The Schedule 11 proposed amendments to the Private Career Colleges Act is overly vague, though seems to imply a desire to make it easier for private sector colleges to compete with legitimate, public post-secondary institutions. This would result in an over saturated job market in which employers are unable or ill-prepared to differentiate between competent, credentialed graduates from legitimate public institutions and those from the private colleges, where education standards are far more lax and the quality of training is difficult to measure.

I sincerely hope that this act will not be passed into law, as these represent only some of the inherent flaws of the proposal. I also hope that the current government instead takes an evidence-based approach to any economic policies--as the currently proposed act would only be a detriment to Ontario's economy.