TORONTO — Ontario auto insurers have been involved in intentional, industry-wide violations of rules around fair access to coverage, the sector’s regulator said Thursday. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) says in a report that it uncovered practices that made it harder for certain types of consumers — those who had prior claims, […]

TORONTO — Most of the children in Ontario waiting for publicly funded core autism therapy will not receive it any time soon, the government says in an internal assessment obtained by The Canadian Press. Days into his new role this spring as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Michael Parsa was given a transition […]

Regional councillors wasted no time in quashing a motion by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown which sought to push the Region of Peel $11 billion into debt. The move came as council members labelled the idea “foolish” and “reckless”, while staff suggested it might be illegal. A staff report presented at the July 6 Peel Region […]

TORONTO — Kids Help Phone says it’s turning to artificial intelligence to help respond to the “enormous need” as more and more young people reach out for mental health help and support. “Young people are changing fast and technology is changing faster,” said Michael Cole, senior vice-president and chief information officer for Kids Help Phone. […]

TORONTO — Ontario is set to increase the wages of early childhood educators in a bid to boost recruitment and retention amid a staff shortage that advocates warn could hamper the growth of the national $10-a-day child-care program. The government has drafted — but not yet released — a child-care workforce strategy based on consultations […]

TORONTO — Ontario should put in place “effective guardrails” on the public sector’s use of artificial intelligence technologies, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the Ontario Human Rights Commission said Thursday in a joint statement. The government must urgently develop “robust and granular” rules so it can reap the benefits of AI technologies in an […]

TORONTO — Neither Bell Canada nor the Ontario government will say how much money they made from a jail phone system that charged what lawyers describe as “exorbitant” rates for inmate calls over eight years. Bell operated the Offender Telephone Management System from 2013 to 2021 — which allowed inmates to only place collect calls […]

TORONTO — Deforestation, contaminated air, polluted water and the loss of wetlands are a growing concern, Ontario’s auditor general concluded in a “state of the environment report” released Tuesday. Bonnie Lysyk also said Ontario’s environment has improved in many areas over the last several decades. Yet she found the Doug Ford government is not providing […]

A Canadian filmmaker is fighting a police order seeking access to raw footage from his documentary about an alleged fraud ring involving fake Norval Morrisseau art, saying he has to protect his source material. Jamie Kastner says he was shocked by the production order he received as Ontario Provincial Police and Thunder Bay, Ont., police […]

TORONTO — Mass immunization clinics in which vaccinators and volunteers move around a circular set-up of chairs – with clients staying seated – was by far the most efficient model in an Ontario government study comparing different sites. The Ministry of Health study, obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request, looked at nine […]

TORONTO — Ontario’s public school boards are calling on the province to lift a moratorium on school closures and to finally complete a review — started six years ago — of how those closure decisions get made. The previous Liberal government first promised the review and enacted the moratorium in 2017, when it was under […]

MANITOBA — Education’s response to a scathing report that concludes the way Ontario schools teach students how to read — a popular approach in local classrooms — is failing children with learning disabilities is being met with skepticism. Internal documents shed light on government officials’ limited analysis of Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read […]