By Bobbi Ann Brady MPP As I was grocery shopping the other day, I noticed a sign, Everyday Essentials, above a refrigerator case of butter, which was selling for $8.99 a pound. Who is paying this price? The word “essential” stuck in my craw, and I had a great discussion with my kids around the supper
By Bobbi Ann Brady With the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season behind us and hopefully any hangovers as well, I found it interesting that the Ontario government announced mid-December that effective New Year’s Day 2026, folks will be able to buy beer, wine, cider, coolers, seltzers, and other low-alcohol ready-to-drink beverages at all participating
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady Building on my previous column outlining the first six months of 2023, this column covers the second part of the year. As much as I want to always be in the riding listening to you, I must also take your concerns to Toronto to voice them at the Ontario
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady The Ontario Legislature rose a week earlier than expected for Christmas, but as your lone truly Independent member of provincial parliament, it sure didn’t stop me from an action-packed 2023 at Queen’s Park and in Haldimand-Norfolk. Any MPP’s riding is where the real work lies, and that’s where you find
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady “At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year” – a phrase coined by 16th-century English poet and farmer Thomas Tusser. While we pace our shopping based on our paycheques and the status of our bank accounts, we are all financially thankful Christmas comes, but
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady Christmas is a time of family, joy, and celebration. If alcohol is going to be part of your celebrations, make sure you have a plan to get home safely. What people may not know, is the police have some new tools at their disposal to make the roads safer, and
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady While we await all the details, at first blush the New Deal for Toronto Act is a bad deal for rural Ontario. For those not following the hubbub, this legislation enables the deal made between Toronto and the province worth $1.2 billion. The lynch pin of the deal is the
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady Agriculture funding mechanisms are complicated and difficult for those outside the farming community to understand. There are a variety of multi-faceted programs, some aimed at one sector and some which are broader. The Risk Management Program, or RMP for short, assists farmers in coping with costs beyond their control, such
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady Over the past few weeks, I’ve met with both physicians and nurse practitioners at Queen’s Park. The physicians tell me they are overwhelmed and bogged down with paperwork. Nurse practitioners tell me they are underutilized. Just a few days ago, a report to Norfolk County council outlined how dire the
By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady Home care is a great idea, and one that most Ontario residents support, but the problem is government can’t get it right. Let’s start with the agency overseeing home care. It used to be there was a local Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) to oversee home care. This was a