“Great Conservatives Understood the Environment Is Not a Partisan Issue.”
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Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report October 30, 2019 Quotation of the day “Great Conservatives understood the environment is not a partisan issue.” Patrick Brown waxes nostalgic in the Toronto Star, arguing federal Conservatives need a Bill Davis-style leader to win elections. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The house convenes at 9 a.m. The government could call any of the following pieces of business for morning and afternoon debate: ● Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, which caps public sector compensation at one per cent; ● Bill 132, Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, the government’s new red-tape reduction legislation; ● Bill 136, Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act; or ● A routine motion from Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy that authorizes civil servant salaries to be paid, per the supply bill. Cabinet is slated to meet this afternoon at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday’s debates and proceedings Before the daily question period, MPPs debated Bethlenfalvy’s motion and honoured Yusra Javed, the Queen’s Park press gallery intern who passed away this summer. In the afternoon, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones tabled the aptly acronymed PAWS legislation: Bill 136, Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act. (More on this below.) Bill 124 was also up for second-reading debate. In the park Marie-France Lalonde, the newly elected Liberal MP for Orléans, has left the building. Lalonde said goodbye to the Pink Palace Tuesday, where she represented the same riding since 2014. Her exit brings the Liberal caucus down to five and triggers a byelection in the Liberal stronghold that Premier Doug Ford must call by March 23. Community activist Rachel Decoste and Ottawa councillor Stephen Blais will battle it out for the Grit nomination on November 9. On today’s reception docket: the Association of Ontario Midwives is hosting a lunchtime reception and the Canadian Automobile Association is holding an evening reception. Tonight is also Speaker Ted Arnott’s annual wine tasting event, where people can sample and vote for the vintners served in the legislative assembly dining room. Premier watch The CBC unearthed Premier Doug Ford’s schedule from the weeks of the federal election campaign, during which many of his day plans included only “briefings,” “meetings,” and “briefings and meetings.” PCs making paw patrol public Solicitor General Sylvia Jones’ much-anticipated legislation for a revamped animal welfare system hit the clerk’s table Tuesday afternoon. Should it pass, Bill 136, otherwise known as the PAWS Act, would establish new offences and stiffer penalties for causing an animal harm, bolster the complaints mechanism for reports of animal abuse, and empower inspectors or anyone else designated by the government to address the issue of pets in distress, such as entering a hot car. The Ford government is proposing to take over enforcement of animal cruelty law with more inspectors and specialists for agriculture, zoos, aquariums and horses, starting January 1, 2020. The move follows through on a judge’s ruling that deemed Ontario’s 100-year-old law governing the non-profit Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals unconstitutional. While OSPCA officers had the same powers as police to enforce animal safety, they were not subject to the same transparency and accountability measures, the court found. The judge gave the provincial government one year to redraft the circa-1919 law; the OSPCA stopped enforcing it in June. Animal welfare advocates have argued the law should be enforced by a public body instead of a private charity and have floated a government commission with police, ministry investigators and veterinarians at the helm. Rickford drags Liberal staffer for bragging about peeling off anti-carbon tax gas-pump stickers Energy Minister Greg Rickford disputed reports and the premier’s own admission that the government’s mandatory anti-carbon tax gas-pump stickers are peeling off because of the wrong adhesive, instead laying the blame on Grit partisans. “The only problem that we’ve had with the stickers are Liberal staffers, actually, peeling them off gas pumps,” Rickford said in Tuesday’s question period. He was referring to a now-deleted Facebook post from Mike Whitehouse, chief of staff to Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre, in which he bragged he “ripped off and destroyed [his] 100th of Doug Ford’s propaganda stickers.” Later on Whitehouse put out another statement saying he “deeply” regrets his actions. “I want to make it clear that defacing stickers on gasoline pumps is against the law.” Premier Doug Ford, a sticker magnate, previously acknowledged reports about the wrong adhesive and said “they had to pull me off the ceiling” when he heard they were peeling off. “It’s like the shoemaker's daughter not getting shoes,” he said at the time. But Rickford maintained Tuesday “there’s no evidence to support that the stickers are not sticking.” Today’s events October 30 at 9:45 a.m. — Toronto Health Minister Christine Elliott will launch the province’s flu season campaign at the Women’s College Hospital. October 30 at 10 a.m. — Toronto Financial Accountability Officer Peter Weltman will be in the Queen’s Park media studio to release a report on the Ford government’s plan to create 15,000 new long-term care beds and wipe out so-called hallway health care. October 30 at 12 p.m. — Toronto Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk will be in the media studio to discuss her special report on Tarion Warranty Corp., which will be tabled earlier that morning. October 30 at 3:15 p.m. — Toronto Associate Small Business Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria continues the cutting-red-tape circuit with an announcement alongsider Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano at OCAD University. Sarkaria’s Bill 132 contains a clause to allow OCAD to confer degrees and diplomas “in any and all branches of learning,” not just fine arts and design. Topics of conversation ● Toronto City Hall has greenlit Premier Doug Ford’s version of a transit expansion plan. ○ Mayor John Tory called the municipal-provincial-federal alignment on the transit map “the best opportunity we’ve ever had,” while councillor Mike Layton lamented the city is “starting again from scratch.” ● Another potential contender has emerged in the Ontario Liberal leadership race: Brenda Hollingsworth. “I am working toward getting my name on the ballot for the Ontario liberal leadership race,” the Ottawa-based lawyer said on Facebook last weekend. ○ Hollingsworth told Queen’s Park Today the party has not yet approved her candidacy. ○ There are currently five registered leadership candidates: Steven Del Duca, Michael Coteau, Mitzie Hunter, Alvin Tedjo and Kate Graham. People have until the end of November to enter the race to permanently replace Kathleen Wynne. ● Meanwhile Arthur Potts is pulling out before officially entering the fray. The former one-term MPP for Beaches-East York hastily cancelled on the eve of this morning’s announcement where he was expected to launch his campaign for Liberal leader. ○ “Due to circumstances under these difficult entry rules, I regretfully must announce I will not be in the running for leader,” he said in a cryptic tweet. ○ Potts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He first mused about his now-dead leadership bid in QPT’s September 24 issue. ● The 11 disqualified pot shop applicants have filed a notice to appeal a lower court’s decision dismissing their challenge of Ontario’s second lottery process, the Canadian Press reports. ● Advocates are raising alarm bells over the Ford government’s sweeping new red-tape reduction bill, which some say could water down environmental protections. The CBC has the story. ● At least 266 teaching positions have been eliminated at high schools across the province thus far, including 97 full-time equivalent jobs at the Toronto District School Board, according to data obtained by the Toronto Star. ● Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle’s newly tabled private member’s bill — which calls for 60 per cent Canadian content and labour to be used to build any new mass public transit vehicles — is gaining traction in his home riding of Thunder Bay. Gravelle’s PMB is backed by Bill Mauro, his former caucus mate and current Thunder Bay mayor, as well as Charla Robinson, president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce. ○ Earlier this month, Metrolinx ordered 36 new bi-level GO train cars from Bombardier’s Thunder Bay plant after the company threatened to lay off 550 workers if it didn’t get any new contracts. ○ Bill 133, Buy in Canada for Mass Transit Vehicles Act, cleared first reading Monday afternoon. Funding announcements Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines ● The ministry finalized a $1.34-billion loan to the the Watay Power Project, an Indigenous-led transmission project that will connect 14,000 First Nations people in northwestern Ontario to the power grid by 2023. ○ The project was first announced by the ex-Liberal rulers in 2016. At the time, the government had less lofty ambitions, promising 10,000 people would be connected to the grid by 2024. Appointments and employments Committees get post-cabinet shuffle shake-up A number of changes were made to the legislative committee memberships Monday, following June’s cabinet shuffle that saw a number of PCs