Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report January 13, 2020

Quotation of the day

“In we’ve got the razzle dazzle covered.”

Tourism and Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod responds to a New York Times op-ed that ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ suggested Canada is a frigid snoozefest.

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The house is in winter recess until February 18, 2020.

Committees this week The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs kicks off pre-budget public consultations in on Friday before a provincewide tour with stops in Sioux Lookout, Thunder Bay, Belleville, Kitchener-Waterloo and Niagara. The witness roster has not yet been posted; those who didn’t make the list can weigh in by writing to the clerk by January 24.

Premier watch laid his mother to rest on Saturday. ​

At the celebration of life ceremony for Diane Ford, who passed away last weekend after ​ ​ struggling with cancer, the premier thanked the public for “the outpouring of love and support” and gave a special shout-out to Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell. ​ ​

“I told my mom that sometimes after talking to the Lieutenant Governor I feel like I’ve been talking to you mum,” Ford said as his voice cracked.

He went on to relay a conversation he had with his mother about Dowdeswell.

“She’s always so understanding, a great listener, hard-working, someone who has seen the world and understands what it means to serve the people. And without missing a beat, straight-faced, my mom looked at me and said, does Her Honour run political campaigns as well?”

“So Your Honour … we might have to ask you to do double duty for the next little while,” Ford said, laughing.

He also gave a nod to former premiers and Ernie Eves, current Toronto ​ ​ ​ ​ and former Mayor Hazel McCallion, as well as Alberta Premier ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Jason Kenney (“My mum was a big supporter of yours Jason”). ​

“You are all part of our family,” the premier told supporters at the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke.

OMG at OPG A false alarm alerting millions of Ontarians of an incident at the Pickering nuclear plant in the early hours Sunday morning has prompted a “full investigation” by the Ford government.

Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said the alert was triggered “in error” during a “routine training ​ ​ exercise” being conducted by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre.

“There was no incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generation Station that should have triggered public notification. Nor was there ever any danger to the public or environment,” Jones said and ​ ​ apologized in a statement.

People received a second notification giving the all-clear more than 90 minutes after the emergency alert hit their phones just before 7:30 a.m.

The first alert said: “This is a province of Ontario emergency bulletin which applies to people within 10 kilometres of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. An incident was reported at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. There has been NO abnormal release of radioactivity from the station and emergency staff are responding to the situation. People near the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station DO NOT need to take any protective actions at this time. Remain tuned to local media for further information and instructions.”

NDP Energy critic Peter Tabuns said the government must be transparent when getting to the ​ ​ bottom of the communication breakdown — which has garnered international headlines. ​ ​

“We are deeply troubled that families were unnecessarily given reason to worry about their safety this morning,” Tabuns said. “Confidence in the accuracy of the system is essential for public safety.”

Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan took to Twitter to demand a full probe. ​ ​

“Like many of you, I was very troubled to have received that emergency alert this morning. While I am relieved that there was no actual emergency, I am upset that an error such as this occurred,” Ryan said.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Ontario Power Generation tweeted that the alert was sent by mistake.

“OPG has a sophisticated and robust notification process in place that we would immediately follow in the unlikely event of an incident at the station. I want to assure the public that there was no incident at the station, and the plant is operating as designed,” added Sean Granville, ​ ​ chief nuclear officer at the electricity generator.

The incident hit news outlets as far flung as New Zealand; an Associated Press wire story with ​ ​ ​ ​ the headline “Canadian Officials Accidentally Push Nuke Alert to Millions” ran in the New York ​ Times and the Washington Post, among other publications. ​ ​ ​

Topics of conversation

● Prepare for another week of labour woes on the education front. AEFO, the union representing French teachers, announced a work-to-rule campaign this week. Franco-Ontarian teachers delivered a strike mandate with 97 per cent support last December citing “fruitless discussions” with Crown negotiators. ○ Elementary teachers are ramping up job action starting today and won’t supervise extra-curricular activities before or after school, or go on field trips. The union also gave notice of rotating strikes starting January 20, if a deal can’t be hammered out at the bargaining table. ○ High school teachers will continue their rotating walk-outs on Wednesday, impacting students in Durham, Hamilton and Ottawa. Ongoing job action that began last November will also see some Grade 9 EQAO standardized math tests originally slated for this week punted to June. ○ Last week, the Catholic teachers’ union announced its members would no longer take part in EQAO-related activities or complete report cards. ○ Education Minister Stephen Lecce again called on teachers’ unions “to cease ​ ​ escalation, stop playing with students' futures, and focus on reaching a deal that keeps our students in the classroom where they belong.”

● Meanwhile, amid rocky negotiations with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, president Harvey Bischof is challenging Premier Doug Ford to bypass ​ ​ ​ ​ union brass and take the government’s contract offer directly to its members. The government can use the mechanism to force a vote on its final offer if union leaders turn it down.

○ “I challenge [Ford] to bring forward his class size increases, bring forward his mandatory e-learning … and we’ll see whether or not I’m accurately representing the wishes of my members,” Bischof told CTV Toronto. ​ ​ ○ Bischof was firing back at the premier’s earlier comments suggesting teachers and union brass may not see eye to eye. “What I’m hearing from [teachers] is that they want to stay in the classroom and keep working. And I differentiate between them and the heads of the unions,” Ford said.

● Court challenges against Bill 124 continue to mount. OPSEU has fired a shot across the ​ ​ bow, warning the Ford government of its impending legal challenge against the legislated one-per-cent cap on public sector salary increases. The union argues Bill 124 ​ infringes on collective bargaining rights and says a Charter challenge will be filed “in the coming weeks.” ○ “By pushing this legislation through, Doug Ford is telling working people that he ​ ​ can call the shots as he pleases and ignore the fundamental laws and principles of our country. He is dead wrong and we will stop him dead in his tracks,” the union said in a release last Thursday. ○ OPSEU joins a coalition of unions gearing up to challenge the controversial law, ​ ​ including CUPE, AMAPCEO, USW and the SEIU. ○ Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy has said he’s confident Bill 124, ​ ​ ​ ​ which received royal assent in November, is constitutionally sound.

● Labour Minister Monte McNaughton debuted a slick new ad spot to woo young folks ​ ​ ​ ​ into the skilled trades.

● Statistics Canada put out its latest jobs data, showing Ontario’s unemployment rate dipped slightly in December, to 5.3 per cent, from 5.6 per cent in November. The province created 25,000 jobs last month, mainly owed to gains in full-time work — which represents the largest year-over-year increase for the month of December since 1987. ○ Green Leader Mike Schreiner chimed in to say the job growth is proof that ​ ​ carbon pricing isn’t hurting the province’s economy and to reiterate his call for the Ford government to end its legal challenge against Ottawa’s carbon levy.

● Rain check: the will reschedule Sunday’s leadership debate in Sudbury that was cancelled due to weather conditions.

Appointments and employments

Department of Finance, Yukon ● Scott Thompson, Ontario’s former Deputy Minister of transportation, infrastructure, ​ finance and cabinet office, is heading to Yukon after a one-year stint as CEO of the ​ ​ Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

○ Thompson left the OPS in December 2018 after 33 years. He takes on the DM of Finance role with the Government of Yukon on March 2.

News briefs — non-governmental ​

‘Action centre’ for auto parts workers hit by GM Oshawa closure opens this month ● A new “action centre” in Oshawa that will give laid-off General Motors employees “local, targeted” training to help them get back into the workforce is set to open sometime this month, says Unifor, which is supporting the project alongside a group of independent auto parts suppliers and the provincial government. ○ Ontario is coughing up $780,000 through the rapid re-employment training program.

Funding announcements

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs ● The provincial and federal government’s announced up to $100,000 in joint funding for a pilot project to “connect early-stage agribusinesses that have innovative ideas, with corporate investors to create commercialization activity.” ○ Ontario Agri-Food Technologies will design and run the pilot, dubbed the “commercial deal accelerator.”

Queen's Park Today is written by Sabrina Nanji, reporting from the Queen's Park press gallery.

What did you think of this Daily Report? What else would you like to see here? Email [email protected] and let us know. ​ ​

Copyright © 2020 Queen’s Park Today. It is a violation of copyright to distribute this newsletter without permission.