The Inaugural Session of the University of Toronto Model Parliament

Senior Delegation

Case Study #1 -  Environment

An Ontario-based environmental organization, Friends of Reducing Appalling Urban Destruction, have submitted a proposal to the Ontario government recommending urgent action to curb Ontario’s carbon dioxide emissions in the interests of preventing catastrophic climate change.

FRAUD contends that unless drastic steps are taken, three major things will happen, which will directly affect Ontario. First, it contends that average temperatures will rise by several degrees in Ontario, which will correspond to increased incidences of extreme weather. Second, the water levels of the Great Lakes are expected to become much lower in coming decades. FRAUD asserts that both of these will endanger local ecosystems and human activity, alike. FRAUD’s final claim is that the entire Greenland Ice Sheet will begin to melt irreversibly in the next decade. This will contribute to the expected rise of global sea levels by almost a metre within the next century, and will eventually push sea levels up by a global average of seven metres.

In response to these problems, FRAUD has proposed a three-tiered policy, consisting of emissions targets, a carbon tax, and trade restrictions. First, FRAUD recommends that the provincial government commit to reducing Ontario’s carbon emissions to 50 per cent of their current levels by 2020. Second, in addition to emission restrictions, the organization advocates a universal tax on fossil fuel emissions, with emitters charged $50 per tonne of carbon dioxide. Finally, the proposal recommends prohibiting or severely restricting imports from any jurisdiction with a less restrictive carbon policy than Ontario’s.

Case Study #2 – Education

Ontario’s post-secondary institutions face a host of challenges and opportunities in the coming decade. Ambitious universities such as the University of Toronto want to adapt to and thrive in a globalizing and increasingly competitive world. This requires finding new models for the structure and role of the university in society. Still, with resource endowments a fraction of the size of their American rivals’, as well as drastic cuts to programs and awards on account of the current recession, Ontario universities complain that the provincial government is not doing enough to help them compete on the emergent higher playing field.

In this context, the Ontario government is devising ways to streamline their funding model and free up more money to support universities’ goals to be more competitive and innovative. The Ontario Institute for Liberty (OIL), a conservative think-tank that advocates free market economics, has proposed a popular but controversial idea to significantly reduce OSAP scholarships and grants by limiting eligibility to students of sciences and engineering. The goals of this policy are twofold: first, to ensure that government investment in the province’s human capital maximizes economic benefit to the province; and second, to incentivize more students from Ontario to pursue studies in science and technology, which will provide them with substantially better career outcomes.

Junior Delegation

Case Study #1 – Education

Ontario’s post-secondary institutions face a host of challenges and opportunities in the coming decade. Ambitious universities such as the University of Toronto want to adapt to and thrive in a globalizing and increasingly competitive world. This requires finding new models for the structure and role of the university in society. Still, with resource endowments a fraction of the size of their American rivals’, as well as drastic cuts to programs and awards on account of the current recession, Ontario universities complain that the provincial government is not doing enough to help them compete on the emergent higher playing field.

In this context, the Ontario government is devising ways to streamline their funding model and free up more money to support universities’ goals to be more competitive and innovative. The Ontario Institute for Liberty (OIL), a conservative think-tank that advocates free market economics, has proposed a popular but controversial idea to significantly reduce OSAP scholarships and grants by limiting eligibility to students of sciences and engineering. The goals of this policy are twofold: first, to ensure that government investment in the province’s human capital maximizes economic benefit to the province; and second, to incentivize more students from Ontario to pursue studies in science and technology, which will provide them with substantially better career outcomes.

Case Study #2 – First Nations Healthcare Reform

The health care system in Ontario has tragically failed to meet the needs of the First Nations population. First Nations communities face severe doctor shortages, record wait times in emergency rooms, and little or no access to health services in isolated areas, where many reserves are located. The rates of serious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and diabetes amongst First Nations populations are substantially higher than in the population at large. With a rapidly growing First Nations population, but no correspondent increases in funding or meaningful reform, this poses an acute threat to Ontario’s First Nations.

The Coalition for First Nations Healthcare Independence (CFNHI) believes that these problems are the result of continual underfunding and mismanagement of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch by governments, and that the current system of collaboration between First Nations and Provincial and Federal governments has conclusively failed. CFNHI proposes the radical solution of giving First Nations groups complete managerial and strategic planning autonomy in healthcare on their reserves.

Under this proposal, the government would provide financial support to establish and maintain health care clinics in First Nations communities, which would be managed completely independently by the First Nations governments. CFNHI claims that First Nations people, as those who have the most direct stake in the impacts of their healthcare systems, and as those who are most intimately aware of the health problems on reserves, are the best suited to solve their own problems. Furthermore, any collaborative approach subverts First Nations interests to broader government goals, and reduces the sense of ownership and agency First Nations have over their own lives.