Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won their third provincial election this year, and the consequences for people who live in Ontario have been massive.

In spite of the provincial government taking a several-months-long break in the middle of the year, the Progressive Conservatives’ majority status allowed them to pass a number of sweeping bills. Many of these bills, which they claim will make Ontario “stronger,” are making the province a very different place compared to what it was at the beginning of the year.

Here is an extensive, yet incomplete, list of the actions (and non-actions) the government took in 2025, that will continue to change Ontario in 2026:

Housing

**Cracked down on homeless people, rather than homelessness. **

In the midst of a housing crisis, and after an Association of Municipalities of Ontario report warning that the number of homeless people in the province could skyrocket, the Ford government decided on a very specific tactic to mitigate visible homelessness: criminalization.

Homelessness has dramatically increased across the province over the last few years. Experts attribute this to the high cost of housing and living expenses, paired with stagnant wages and low social-assistance rates. Encampments have increased across the province/country as a result.

Through Bill 6, the provincial government gave new powers to the police to crack down on people living in tents in parks and other public places. This was done despite the fact that cities largely do not have the shelter infrastructure in place to provide people with a place to stay.

Municipalities have mirrored this crackdown on encampments, which you can read about more here.

**Made it easier for landlords to evict tenants. **

The omnibus Bill 60 drew a lot of attention for comments made by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, after he floated the idea of ending indefinite leases for rental units. After intense pushback from the public, the government walked this back, but the changes that did come with Bill 60 will still make life harder for tenants, and, organizers say, will increase housing insecurity.

**Failed to meet its own housing targets, again. **

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack recently tried to distance himself from the Ford government’s often-repeated goal to build 1.5 million homes in a decade. Despite this, the province is continuing to rely on private industry to provide “much needed” housing supply in the province, even though private developers have pulled back on building while they wait for demand to increase.

**Ignored calls to raise social assistance rates. **

Despite experts, advocates and several municipalities urging the premier to raise social assistance rates, Doug Ford did not raise the amount received by people on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program. The maximum monthly payment on Ontario Works is $733, and lower if you don’t have a permanent address. It is $1,368 on ODSP.

During the provincial election, Ford accused people on Ontario Works of staying home and watching The Flintstones.

Education

**Took over school boards. **

The Ford government assumed direct control of six school boards — the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Thames Valley District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Toronto District School Board and Near North District School Board — placing their own preferred administration in charge.

**Eliminated the role of school trustees. **

Ford suspended school trustees, elected representatives meant to represent the interests of their local communities, from the five school boards the ministry assumed control over. Only a few days after advocates for students with disabilities launched a campaign to protest this in November, the province signalled that trustees would soon be removed from other school boards and replaced with new “Student and Family Support Offices.” The province’s announcement did not disclose how these new offices would be funded, but they did give school boards a deadline of September 1, 2026, to create them.

**Put police back in schools. **

After a decade-long fight by activists to get police officers taken out of schools, the passage of Bill 33 makes it mandatory for schools to enrol in a school resource officer program in a police force’s catchment area, as long as a local police force offers one.

**Kept schools understaffed. **

While the Ministry of Education announced “historic” investments in schools by putting over one billion dollars into the construction of new schools, the move was slammed by the Ontario School Board Council of Unions which said that issues in schools, including violence, are largely a result of chronic understaffing and underfunding.

Infrastructure

**Opened the door to water privatization. **

Although the province maintains that it’s not going to privatize water, researchers and advocates stand by the fact that language in the recently passed Bill 60 opens the door for the privatization of water across Ontario. The language, while opaque, requires that any new “public corporation” that will manage water delivery services be incorporated under the *Business Corporations Act, *which is used for private, for-profit corporations.

**Threw money at the idea of a tunnel under the 401. **

To alleviate traffic, Doug Ford proposed a surprising new idea — a tunnel underneath the 401, from one end of the city to the other. Although this would be an astronomically expensive, incredibly difficult and lengthy project, and unlikely to even address issues with traffic, Ford ordered a feasibility study which will cost the province $9.1 million to conduct.

**Fought against bike lanes on multiple fronts. **

After the city of Toronto installed bike lanes, Ford announced that he would be ripping some of them out. The city estimated that this would cost $48 million, a much higher sum than what they cost to construct. A court injunction prevented Ford from removing them, leading him to weigh use of the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to take these bike lanes out, anyway. The government ultimately did not use the notwithstanding clause, however, a part of Bill 60 now prevents municipalities from adding bike lanes to roads, leaving the city of Ottawa potentially unable to move forward on three planned bike lanes.

Banned municipalities from implementing automated speed measures, introduced giant signs.

** **Doug Ford put an end to municipalities using speed cameras, calling them a “cash grab.” Brampton had just invested $78 million into a video-processing centre for these cameras. Recently, the province presented cartoonishly-large speed signs as an alternative.

**Loaned $100 million to Algoma Steel to stay open, with mixed success. **

The provincial government extended $100 million in loans to Algoma Steel, a Northern Ontario steel mill. The federal government also sent around $400 million. Earlier this week, the plant announced that it was firing 1000 workers, despite the financial assistance. It stated that tariffs were the reason behind closing its blast furnace a year ahead of schedule.

Environment

**Gave itself the power to create “special economic zones,” exempting designated areas from specific laws. **

The Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, passed in the spring, allows for the government to create “special economic zones” that would be exempted from existing laws, particularly to speed up the approval process for mining projects.

A top priority for Ford is to get the Ring of Fire project underway. Although Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce has said he planned to consult with First Nations, the legislation was introduced without any consultation.

**Removed land from Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. **

The province changed the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act to clear the way for it to transfer 60% of the park’s shoreline to the Town of Wasaga Beach. Environmentalists have been very concerned about the ecological impacts this would have on the beach, as well as on the Piping Plover, an endangered species that uses the beach as its habitat.

Assorted Escapades

**Became embroiled in another alleged-cronyism scandal. **

The Ford government’s most recent scandal comes from the Skills Development Fund, where a number of Ford associates and donors have received millions of dollars of public funding. Recipients of the Skills Development Fund include, according to the Trillium, a company run by Ford’s dentist, which received $2 million.

**Exacerbating a trade war by upsetting Donald Trump. **

Ford’s government spent $75 million on an ad campaign in the United States that managed to upset the US President, setting back trade talks and leading to more tariffs on Canadian goods going to the United States.

While this is a non-exhaustive list, these actions and changes will impact people in Ontario next year and beyond.

**Our journalism is powered by readers like you. **

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

Become a member