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 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 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 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 must call by March 23. Community activist Rachel Decoste ​ ​ ​ and councillor will battle it out for the Grit nomination on November 9. ​ ​

On today’s reception docket: the Association of Midwives is hosting a lunchtime reception and the Canadian Automobile Association is holding an evening reception.

Tonight is also Speaker ’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 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 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 continues the cutting-red-tape circuit ​ ​ with an announcement alongsider Colleges and Universities Minister 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 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: , ​ ​ , , 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 ’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 . 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 moved into cabinet posts and whittled down the number of government MPPs able to serve on committees.

Here’s the new roster:

Standing Committee on Government Agencies ● PC MPPs , , and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Standing Committee on Public Accounts ● PC MPPs , Stephen Crawford and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● NDP MPPs and France Gélinas ​ ​ ​ ​

Standing Committee on Justice Policy ● PC MPPs , Lorne Coe, Will Bouma and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● NDP MPPs and ​ ​ ​

Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills ● PC MPPs , , and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Standing Committee on Social Policy ● PC MPPs Natalia Kusendova, and ​ ​ ​

● NDP MPP ​

Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly ● PC MPPs , , Jim McDonell and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● NDP MPP ​

Thanks to the changes, a number of committees have added organizational meetings this week to select new chairs.

Question period NDP lead-off Hospital overcrowding in ● Opposition Leader kicked off the session’s second question period ​ ​ with FOI-ed data showing Brampton’s Peel Memorial urgent care centre is operating at a volume of 587 per cent over what it’s funded for. The Brampton Civic Hospital spent the first half of the year at over 100 per cent capacity. “Does the premier think this is acceptable?” Horwath asked.

● Premier Doug Ford punted the question to his Health Minister Christine Elliott, who ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ passed the buck on to the previous Liberal government. ○ “We do know that many hospitals across the province of Ontario are operating at over 100 per cent capacity, but this is nothing new. This has been happening for a number of years. We were elected to change that,” the minister said.

Ron Taverner saga ● Horwath then threw it back to January and repeated the NDP’s question about whether Mario Di Tommaso, deputy minister to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, had declared a ​ ​ ​ conflict of interest when he sat on the hiring panel that recommended the now-defunct controversial appointment of Ron Taverner, the premier’s longtime personal friend, as ​ ​ OPP commissioner. ○ But she buried the lede: that morning the Globe and Mail reported more details of ​ ​ ​ ​ Taverner’s connection to Di Tommaso, including the fact that the former helped organize a banquet to honour the latter. Weeks later, the newly minted DM Di Tommaso hired Taverner as provincial police captain.

● Jones deflected and pumped up support for officers’ mental health.

Public appointments scandal ● NDP MPP , one of the cheekier orators in the house, doubled down on ​ ​ the latest Taverner drama and asked for a status update on the review of the public appointments process that Premier Ford announced at the height of this summer’s nepotism controversy that saw his former chief of staff, Dean French, resign. ​ ​

○ “For months the premier has laid low while details of his patronage appointments leaked out, handing lucrative foreign postings to the former PC Party president ​ and the lacrosse-playing friend of his chief of staff’s son, stacking government ​ ​ agencies with friends and relations,” Natyshak contended. ○ The New Democrats have said the review should be arms’ length.

● House Leader said the government is working to make the appointment ​ ​ process “more open and transparent,” but didn’t offer any specifics. ○ “When it comes to the committee process, we are following the process that was actually put in place by the previous NDP government,” he said of the all-party legislative committee tasked with interviewing would-be appointees (but the committee doesn’t have any power to veto them).

The NDP also asked about supporting North Spirit Lake First Nation, which just declared a state of emergency over its water and power systems; developing an auto strategy after Ford Motor Company announced 450 layoffs at its Oakville operation; and collecting race-based data to address systemic discrimination.

Independent questions Carbon-tax court challenge ● Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser wanted to know what’s changed since August when ​ ​ Premier Ford suggested democracy would decide the fate of the federal carbon backstop, and why his government is still pursuing its legal challenge after the Grits handily held on to Ontario in last week’s vote.

● Environment Minister fired back it’s “ironic that the member opposite talks ​ ​ about democracy” because of the previous government’s controversial wind turbine projects in municipalities. ○ For the second time in as many weeks, Yurek pointed to an Angus Reid poll that suggested support for cancelling the carbon levy, including among NDP and Green voters.

● Green Leader also took the government to task for its record on climate ​ ​ policy. He wanted to know if the PCs would back off their “wasteful” carbon-tax court challenge and instead develop meaningful environmental policy with Ottawa. ○ Energy Minister Greg Rickford shut it down. ​ ​

PC friendly questions Tories lobbed each other softballs about a new “mining working group” between the Ford government and industry representatives; progress on the PC’s pledge to build 15,000 new long-term care beds; and the ambitious transit expansion plan for the GTA.

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 © 2019 Queen’s Park Today. It is a violation of copyright to distribute this newsletter without permission.