An hour before the sun is up in Ontario on Sunday, restaurants and bars will be allowed to start serving alcohol to excited hockey fans.

To coincide with the Canadian men’s ice hockey gold medal game, the provincial government will temporarily change licensing rules to allow alcohol sales to begin at 6 a.m.

“The entire country will be watching on Sunday morning as our men’s hockey team plays for Olympic gold,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote in a social media post after Canada narrowly beat Finland to advance.

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“To help us all celebrate Team Canada, the province will be allowing bars and restaurants across the province to sell alcohol starting at 6:00 a.m. EST. Let’s all come together, support local businesses and cheer on Team Canada!”

Ontario normally allows alcohol sales from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m., with extended hours for New Year’s Eve.

An exemption in the act allows Toronto to decree its own opening times, which have been set to 6 a.m. since the beginning of the Olympics.

The gold medal game will begin at 8:10 a.m. on Sunday.

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The day before employees at the Crown Royal bottling facility in Amherstburg, Ont., were told their jobs were about to be eliminated, the company behind the Canadian-made whisky reached out to Premier Doug Ford’s office to offer the government a “heads up.”

Internal emails, obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws, reveal how the government initially planned a subtler response to the job losses, before the premier decided to intervene.

After the closure was made public, coverage intensified, culminating with Ford emptying a bottle of Crown Royal onto the ground after an event. The premier threatened to ban the whisky and eventually retreated this month when the company agreed to spend $23 million to offset the job losses and lower the temperature with the government.

But before Ford raised the stakes, emails between senior premier’s office staff and a public relations firm representing Diageo North America show a pleasant relationship going as far back as 2023, when the government was rolling out sweeping changes to the province’s alcohol retail rules

The company sent the premier a letter to show the company’s “appreciation” for the alcohol modernization plan and invite “continued dialogue between Diageo and the Premier’s Office.”

The tone changed last August, when the company emailed Ford’s principal secretary asking for an urgent meeting to update him on a “time-sensitive matter.”

“We are looking to ensure the Premier’s Office is briefed before the matter becomes public,” the Aug. 27 email from Diageo Canada’s corporate relations director read.

The email was sent at 6:47 p.m. that day. The next morning, the closure of the bottling plant was made public.

Sources told Global News that while companies will often give the province advance notice on plant closures or workforce changes, it only comes one day in advance.

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In Diageo’s case, company officials laid out the changes over a 10- to 15-minute Microsoft Teams call and suggested that the decision was made months in advance, with little the Ontario government could do to change the outcome.

The courtesy call, according to the emails seen by Global News, appeared to be taken at face value.

“Thank you for the call and the heads up. As promised, I am sharing the statement our labour minister will be issuing in response to this,” a senior staffer in the premier’s office wrote to Diageo on Aug. 28, hours after the announcement was made public.

The response shared with the company indicated the province was “disappointed” with the decision but offered no hints at the escalation to come.

When asked by Diageo whether the government’s statement was going to be issued “proactively” or “reactive to media inquiries,” the premier’s office sought to reassure the company.

“Just reactive. We have a handful of local requests at the moment,” the senior staffer wrote.

Then, the tone shifted.

The next day, a staffer in the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade wrote to Diageo’s public relations firm asking to set up a call or meeting with the premier.

“Premier Ford has asked our office to put him in touch with the President of Diageo Canada. Would you be able to assist me in getting them connected?” the email read.

Sources told Global News the request for a call came after Ford was briefed on the situation and started getting calls from stakeholders. On the Friday before the Labour Day long weekend, the premier and a Diageo representative hopped on a phone call that, sources said, “wasn’t positive.”

“[The premier] came into it saying what can we do to make this work?” the source said. “The answer was basically, you can’t make it work.”

The anger stemming from the phone call resulted in Ford’s public protest.

The premier, who was scheduled to hold a news conference in Kitchener, brought along a bottle of Crown Royal for a loosely choreographed demonstration, which critics later labelled a “stunt.”

“You guys are about as dumb as a bag of hammers for doing this,” Ford declared as he poured out the bottle.

The situation only continued to escalate from there, with threats from the premier to strip the LCBO of Crown Royal, and even other Diageo brands, when the plant in Amherstburg closed for good at the end of February.

Sources said that while “both sides” started looking for ways to de-escalate the situation, the deadline created more “willingness” from Diageo to “bring more to the table.”

“There were multiple rounds of offers,” one source said before Diageo and the Ford government agreed to $23 million in spending.

The investment includes a million-dollar investment in the Windsor and Amherstburg area, along with purchase agreements from manufacturers in eastern Ontario, Toronto and Scarborough, plus $5 million on Ontario-based marketing and advertising.

While NDP Leader Marit Stiles highlighted that the agreement “doesn’t replace the jobs that we’re going to lose in Amherstburg,” Ford defended the agreement as positive for the province.

“If I didn’t fight, that $23 million, they wouldn’t get anything at all,” Ford said. “And that was my rationale right from the get-go.”

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As the homebuilding industry continues to complain about the cost of starting new projects, the Ontario government is forging ahead with its plans to set up public corporations to build new water and sewage infrastructure.

To get approval to build new homes, developers must pay fees to municipalities designed to cover the cost of running pipes to their developments and building roads, transit or community centres.

They are costs which developers say are escalating at a rate they cannot afford, but which municipalities argue they cannot live without if they are to continue building and maintaining public infrastructure.

It’s a financial conundrum Housing Minister Rob Flack is hoping he can solve through the creation of something called a municipal services corporation.

“I’d like to see them gone, but I think they just can’t be gone because we need to put infrastructure in the ground,” he explained at a recent Empire Club event.

“Growth no longer pays for growth, you can’t expect a new homebuyer to pay for the infrastructure costs into the future, the municipalities don’t have the money — they’ll tell you that — the province doesn’t, nor do the feds. So why don’t we consider setting up municipal service corps, public utilities?”

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The idea will be piloted in the Region of Peel, with a plan to expand it across the province if it works.

Ontario will set up a public corporation operating under a similar model to utilities. It will be able to issue debt to build new water and wastewater infrastructure, attract investors and work to pay it off through fees.

“We’re doing Peel Region as a pilot for this. I think that’s a huge opportunity… you can amortize that investment over 50, 60, 70 years,” Flack added.

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Ontario invests in water infrastructure to boost housing builds in Peterborough, Cavan-Monaghan Township

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The idea was introduced through recent legislation and promised in a letter to Peel Region councillors last year.

Scott Anderson of the Ontario Home Builders Association said it was time to look at a new approach, and said municipal services corporations could be the path forward.

“The costs of infrastructure have escalated to such a degree that it’s just impossible now to use development charges to solely raise the money for capital. These are millions of dollars in projects that are required,” he said.

“As we understand it, in working with the province on how they’re looking to design a model that will work, and Peel was an appropriate place to do that. So they set up this municipal services corporation… it really takes it out of the municipal domain and puts it into a new organization that is focused solely on infrastructure.”

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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest is the last straw for one Ontario mayor who is now seeking a street renaming in his municipality.

St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe told Global News Thursday that he will ask council on Monday to consider renaming Prince Andrew Court, a residential street near Prince Charles Court and Lake Street.

“St. Catharines councillors and I have been having discussions for some time about whether the court should be renamed,” Siscoe said in a statement.

“Given today’s news of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, I would say there is no reason to continue discussing.”

Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince who was stripped of his royal titles because of his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

While Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein, concerns about his links to the late financier have dogged the Royal Family for more than a decade.

Siscoe said St. Catharines council has a responsibility to ensure that municipal place names reflect community values and maintain public confidence in civic institutions.

He’s asking for the process to review and consider renaming the court to include public consultation with affected residents and stakeholders, and have staff report back with recommendations, including options for alternative names and associated financial and administrative implications.

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Former prince Andrew arrested amid Epstein investigation

Several Canadian municipalities have landmarks that are named after Andrew, and St. Catharines is just the latest to seek a renaming.

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In August 2022, Prince Andrew High School in Dartmouth, N.S., was renamed Woodlawn High School.

Mississauga, Ont., council passed a motion in November 2025 to disassociate the name Duke of York Boulevard from the former prince. The motion included removing all plaques, honours and non-critical signage tied to the former royal on city property.

Township of Selwyn Mayor Sherry Senis told Global News Thursday that the township approved a motion in November to study the renaming of Prince Andrew Island and Gordonstoun Island.

“This review will include following the required provincial process through the Province of Ontario Geographic Names Board (a process that can take up to 12 months to complete once an application is submitted). This work will be carried out transparently and in partnership with community members, including local First Nations,” Senis said, adding that she expects to hear from the local First Nation next week.

Kevin Murdoch, mayor of Oak Bay, B.C., said the district has had some interest from residents over the years in wanting Prince Andrew Place – a small residential cul-de-sac – renamed.

However, no formal request or direction to initiate a name change had been made.

“The recent removal of the title ‘Prince Andrew’ from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the arrest of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor may change the discussion or timeline, but I have nothing new to add,” Murdoch told Global News in an email.

“Council has not had an opportunity to raise the issue since the arrest announcement in particular.”

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Former Prince Andrew likely to face criminal investigation over ties to Epstein

Toronto and Caledon, Ont., also have streets named after the former prince. A Town of Caledon official told Global News in an email any reconsideration of a municipal street name would require a formal review process and public feedback.

The office of Toronto mayor Olivia Chow did not return comment request by publication.

The late Queen Elizabeth II forced her second son to give up royal duties and end his charitable work in 2019 after he tried to explain away his ties to Epstein during a catastrophic interview with the BBC.

But more details about the relationship emerged in a book published last year, and Charles stripped him of the right to be called a prince and ordered him to move.

Then came the unprecedented announcement last week that Buckingham Palace was ready to co-operate in the event of a police inquiry into Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein.

Charles was forced to act after the U.S. Justice Department released millions of pages of Epstein documents that revealed the extent of his relationship with Mountbatten-Windsor and showed that their correspondence continued long after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York in 2019. He took his own life in jail while awaiting trial.

— with files from The Associated Press

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Ontario’s education minister has directed the province’s school boards to stream Team Canada’s Olympic hockey games during classroom times so students can “rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

Premier Doug Ford announced the idea in a social media post on Wednesday evening, saying he had told Education Minister Paul Calandra to work out how schools could make it possible.

“To help everyone get in the spirit of the games, I’ve directed the Minister of Education to make sure all Ontario students are able to watch the remaining Team Canada hockey games that take place during school hours, starting with tomorrow’s game,” the premier wrote.

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The Canadian women’s hockey team plays its gold medal match against the USA at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, while the men’s semi-final against Finland will be played at 10:40 a.m. on Friday.

Calandra confirmed Thursday morning he had moved on Ford’s request and told schools they must let students watch the games.

“In recognition of the Olympics and this exciting time for Team Canada, I am directing all school boards to let students tune in to both the Women’s and Men’s hockey games during school hours,” he said in his own social media post.

“Big games like these aren’t just about the outcome, they’re a chance to rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

The Winter Olympics wrap up on Feb. 22.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is signalling he will stand firm on his government’s changes to student loans as opposition to a major restructuring of the program grows in the province.

As part of a push to sustain the struggling post-secondary sector, the province will inject new cash into colleges and universities and allow them to raise tuition fees by two per cent a year.

The changes also shifted how OSAP operates, moving away from grants to offer students more loans instead.

The existing proportion of OSAP was about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.

Now, advocates and opponents are pushing the premier to reverse course, accusing him of trying to balance the books on the backs of students.

“Doug Ford has shown that he doesn’t mind a good flip-flop, so we’re going to hand him an opportunity,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.

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“Families that I’m hearing from are furious. Not only is this an attack on students saddling them with massive debt when they least need it … but it is also a hit on our economy.”

The NDP has launched a campaign to “save OSAP,” urging students and families to sign its petition and write to their local MPPs.

“We have been contacted already by thousands of people, thousands of students,” Stiles said. “Even the premier acknowledged he’s getting thousands of calls. No kidding. My phone was lighting up all weekend; I expect every MPP was getting lots of calls.”

Bella Fischer, with the College Student Alliance, said the OSAP changes and hiked tuition fees could put some off college or university by making them pay more for longer.

“They’re putting basically all of the burden onto the students,” she said. “The decisions in life later are going to also be affected because they’re going to have more debt to pay.”

Ford, however, justified the decision at an unrelated event on Wednesday, saying the existing system was “unsustainable” and claiming the government had been “paying for everyone’s education.”

He added, “The most vulnerable are going to be taken care of, that’s clear and simple. It’s going to be 25 per cent — and that puts us in the middle of the pack.”

Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said the premier didn’t understand the impact on students.

“He’s out of touch with people’s everyday lives, what families go through to make sure that their kids get an education and are ready for the future,” he said. “They give up a lot.”

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The Ford government has broken ground on four stations and an elevated guideway for its signature Ontario Line subway, which could be finished sometime in the early 2030s.

The project was born from Premier Doug Ford’s attempts to upload Toronto’s subway system shortly after he came to power, connecting the Don Mills and Eglinton area to Ontario Place.

The Ontario Line was announced in 2019 with a promise that it “could open by 2027” and a $10.9 billion price tag.

It was designed to act as a relief valve for the city’s Yonge/University subway line, offering an alternate way to get from north to south through new neighbourhoods. It broke ground in March 2022.

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Since then, the cost of the project, which has been updated to include operating costs, has exploded to more than $27 billion, and the opening date has been removed. The $27 billion figure captures all major contracts that need to be handed out.

At the groundbreaking event on Wednesday, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay said the subway would likely be built by the early 2030s, but that testing could extend its opening date beyond that.

“We think we’re still trending toward the early 2030s to be done with civil infrastructure and then to start the testing and commissioning phase,” Lindsay said.

“We’re trying right now to think about how we front-load systems integration considerations to reduce that testing and commissioning time. Once we know more with our private partners about how that’s going … we’ll be able to be even more precise.”

Wednesday’s event marked the beginning of construction work on an elevated guideway for the Ontario Line that will take track from Don Valley Station to Flemingdon Park and then to Thorncliffe Park.

“The Ontario Line is at the centre of our government’s $70 billion plan to build and upgrade transit, helping to fight gridlock and keeping thousands of workers on the job in the face of tariffs and economic uncertainty.”

Ground was also broken at Cosburn Station in the Pape Villa area.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was inundated with calls from students over the weekend, worrying about his government’s decision to raise tuition fees and cut OSAP grants, saying he couldn’t fight against post-secondary leaders any longer.

Last week, the government confirmed it would allow colleges and universities to raise tuition fees by two per cent a year and substantially scale back the grant funding available to students.

At the same time, funding for the sector will increase to roughly $7 billion per year, after thousands of layoffs and hundreds of program cancellations across the post-secondary sector.

“I got a lot of calls from students about OSAP and they were interesting calls, and I returned every one with a standard statement,” Ford told reporters. “It wasn’t hundreds, it was thousands.”

Ford said he had tried to tell students that keeping fees frozen “wasn’t sustainable any longer” and that he had spent years fighting to maintain his freeze.

“I just wish the students knew how hard I fought,” the premier said. “When I first came into office, I knocked the tuition down 10 per cent and under massive pressure from the heads of the colleges and universities, I refused to increase tuition.”

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From September, colleges and universities will be able to increase fees by two per cent annually for the next three years. After that, they will increase by either two per cent or an average of the rate of inflation — whichever is lower.

After fees were frozen by Ford in 2019, colleges and universities increasingly turned to international students to deal with revenue issues, with roughly one-third of total college revenue coming from international students.

When the federal government capped the number of international students at the beginning of 2024, that revenue stream dried up. Colleges, in particular, felt the brunt of it, laying off more than 8,000 staff and closing campuses.

“It’s just not sustainable, and the sector was telling me it’s not sustainable; it would mean closing down colleges and universities,” Ford said. “I think it was accepted by the general public because they’re paying the bills.”

At the same time, the government is also overhauling how student loans and grants work — shifting from offering large grants to an approach which requires students to repay more.

The current proportion is about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.

Ford said he thought that approach might make students work harder.

“I believe that students will focus and be more accountable if they have investments into their education, if their parents have investments in their education, they’re going to focus on it, they aren’t going to drop out,” he said.

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Famed Canadian sportscaster Don Cherry has been appointed to the Order of Ontario.

The provincial government unveiled Tuesday that Cherry, 92, and 29 others would be the 2025 recipients of the province’s highest civilian honour.

“A prominent Canadian hockey figure, Don Cherry is known for his influential coaching career, bold broadcasting style and decades of dedication to the sport,” a provincial statement reads.

“After coaching the Boston Bruins, he became a defining voice on Hockey Night in Canada through Coach’s Corner. Cherry is also recognized for extensive philanthropy, supporting the military and police, youth sports and animal welfare through Don Cherry’s Pet Rescue Foundation. He founded Rose Cherry’s Home for Kids and is a strong advocate for organ donation. In 2004, he was ranked the seventh-greatest Canadian in CBC’s The Greatest Canadian.”

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Don Cherry launches new podcast

For nearly 40 years, Cherry, who was born in Kingston, Ont., made his name on Coach’s Corner during Hockey Night in Canada, often wearing bold suits.

His run on the program came to an end in November 2019 after he delivered a televised rant about people not wearing poppies, seemingly aimed at immigrants.

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Cherry denied targeting new Canadians; Rogers Sportsnet president Bart Yabsley said Cherry “made divisive remarks that do not represent our values or what we stand for” when he announced his firing that month.

Shortly after, he went on to host the Don Cherry’s Grapevine Podcast with his son, producing 313 episodes in total. Its last episode was released on June 22, 2025, and Cherry’s son told The Canadian Press it was unlikely any new episodes would be produced.

Other Order of Ontario appointees announced Tuesday include Cameron Bailey, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival, Nathan Leipciger, a Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate and Edward Rogers, executive chair of Rogers Communications, chair of the Toronto Blue Jays and chair of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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Ontario’s finance minister is expressing concerns about the rate of health-care spending in the province, calling the current $91.5-billion budget both “unprecedented” and “unsustainable.”

When Peter Bethlenfalvy addressed the Mississauga Board of Trade in January, he outlined some of the issues that appear to be weighing on his mind as he crafts the upcoming budget set to be delivered in late March.

“We’re in unprecedented territory in terms of the concerns of people. People are scared, they’re worried, they are concerned,” Bethlenfalvy said of the current geopolitical and economic climate fuelled, in part, by U.S. President Donald Trump.

At the same time, Bethlenfalvy warned that the province was facing a “big headwind, on top of the uncertainty” that threatens to squeeze Ontario even further.

“The economic environment is slowing down, there’s just no question,” the minister said. “We’re growing at the slowest rate we’ve grown post-COVID.”

Adding to the GDP concerns, the finance minister pointed out that “flattening” population growth is another factor his department is closely watching as it decides how to allocate billions in spending.

“Eighty-five per cent of the spending in the budget is actually for social spending. About 15 per cent is for infrastructure and the economy,” Bethlenfalvy explained.

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“We have a slowing population and a slowing economic growth and a trajectory of social spending that’s been, frankly, unprecedented. So we’re going to have to manage that challenge.”

Later, during a fireside chat, the minister put it more clearly: “Our health-care spending is unsustainable. We just have to deal with reality that we can’t keep spending, particularly when our population is flattening.”

The comments come at a time when hospitals warned the government they are facing a billion-dollar structural deficit and are now preparing for “difficult decisions” unless the Ford government increases health-care funding in its upcoming budget.

The Ontario Hospital Association said health-care costs have risen by six per cent a year, largely due to a growing and aging population and inflation, forcing health-care institutions to erode their capital and borrow money to stay afloat.

Rob Cerjanec, a Liberal MPP from Ajax, said the finance minister’s comments are “incredibly concerning,” especially for residents who want assurances that health care will be available when needed.

“When we hear a minister of finance talking about health-care spending being unsustainable, I mean that could be the difference between life or death for somebody,” Cerjanec said.

“We have great pride in our public health-care system. We need to strengthen our public health-care system.”

Recently, Ontario’s financial accountability officer revealed that the province was projecting a “significantly slower pace” of health-care spending in the next few years compared with the previous three.

The 2025 budget projected that health-care spending would grow by an average rate of 0.7 per cent between 2025 and 2028.

By contrast, the health-care budget grew by 6.6 per cent on average between 2021 and 2024.

“Over the 34-year period from 1990-91 to 2023-24, health sector spending grew at an average annual rate of 5.0 per cent,” the budget watchdog notes. “If the Province’s health sector spending plan in the 2025 budget is achieved, it would be the slowest three-year growth rate since 1993-94 to 1996-97.”

When Global News asked the finance minister whether his “unsustainable” remark meant he was considering cutting spending, Bethlenfalvy rejected the notion.

“We’re not going to cut health-care spending,” the finance minister said, before adding that his goal is to deliver health spending in an “efficient, effective and innovative way.”

Bethlenfalvy said that includes focusing on reducing surgical wait times, easing hallway health care and expanding access to family doctors.

The minister added that the use of artificial intelligence to help physicians take notes and using tracking devices on gurneys and wheelchairs are examples of innovation to free up resources and stretch precious health-care dollars.

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