"You're Such a Piece of Shit."

Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report June 25, 2020

Quotation of the day

"You're such a piece of shit."

Taras Natyshak heckles the premier during question period. Natyshak later apologized, and Doug Ford said it was “water off a duck’s back.”

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The house reconvenes on Monday, July 6, for the start of three-day sitting weeks. Next week is the Canada Day constituency week break.

Wednesday's debates and proceedings The government's motion extending the state of emergency to July 15 passed a morning vote.

MPPs kicked off third-reading debate on Bill 161, Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, which was reported back to the house from committee on Tuesday, with amendments.

One big change is the re-addition of two key tenets for Legal Aid Ontario’s mandate, to “promote access to justice” and “be responsive to the needs of low-income individuals and disadvantaged communities.”

During public hearings, community legal clinics slammed the original draft of the bill because it removed those purposes in favour of cost-savings, which would have hurt low-income clients and those who come from marginalized communities.

Bill 175, Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, which overhauls home and community care, is also back on the chamber floor for third reading.

The Ontario Health Coalition, which organized a small rally against the bill on the legislature's lawn yesterday, has called it "irredeemable." The OHC says Bill 175 is a wrecking ball to public oversight and allows for-profit providers to take over a bigger slice of home care functions.

Premier watch Premier Doug Ford, Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia gave a virtual shout-out to Ontario's 2020 graduating class Wednesday afternoon.

Windsor greenlit for Stage 2, Kingsville and Leamington still on lock Almost all of Windsor-Essex will join the rest of Ontario in Stage 2 as of midnight tonight.

Kingsville and Leamington, where the overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 cases in the region have cropped up on farms, will hold at Stage 1 for now.

Premier Doug Ford also put out a new strategy for reining in the spread of the virus among migrant workers. That includes new public health guidance to allow asymptomatic workers who test positive to continue on the job in their own “clusters,” with safety measures in place.

Dr. David Williams said the “cluster method” was developed because of the large number of farm workers who tested positive but are not ill. These workers will be retested 48 hours later.

Ontario is breaking ground because it is one of the first provinces to do a lot of asymptomatic testing. “As we learn more, we change things, we adapt,” Willams told reporters, adding that tests are so sensitive they can pick up remnants of dead virus in the nasal passage even after that person is no longer infectious (officials had previously warned false positives would be an issue under expanded asymptomatic testing).

Since on-site farm testing launched over the weekend about 350 asymptomatic workers have been swabbed on top of the 700 previously tested in the region, according to Ford.

Labour Minister Monte McNaughton also said migrant workers who get sick from COVID-19 won’t be at risk of losing their jobs or being deported, and will qualify for WSIB.

Today’s events

June 25 at 9 a.m. – Online The Financial Accountability Office will release a report analyzing the $1.7-billion spending plan for tourism, culture and heritage-related programs in 2020-21.

June 25 at 11 a.m. – Online PC MPPs Stephen Crawford, parliamentary assistant to the infrastructure minister, and local rep Sam Oosterhoff will join a slate of local and federal politicians in the Niagara region for a virtual transit funding announcement.

June 25 around 1 p.m. – Toronto Premier Doug Ford is expected to hold his daily briefing at Queen's Park.

June 25 at 1 p.m. – Online Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark and PC MPP Jim McDonell will participate in an infrastructure announcement for the communities of Brockville and Cornwall along with federal and municipal leaders.

June 25 at 3 p.m. – Toronto Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams and associate CMOH Dr. Barbara Yaffe will provide their regular update on COVID-19.

Topics of conversation

● The daily coronavirus tally fell below 200 again, with another 163 cases recorded Wednesday. There were 12 new deaths, pushing the toll to at least 2,631, and 229 newly resolved cases outpaced new infections. Testing also rebounded following a dip the day before; over 23,000 samples were processed. ○ Toronto’s medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa is pushing Queen’s Park and Ottawa to get on board with a plan to provide voluntary accommodation options for people who test positive for the virus but are unable to isolate at home. The goal is to stop the spread within households.

● Elections Ontario has censured Vaughan Working Families, a group linked to PC appointee Quinto Annibale, for failing to register as a third-party advertiser when taking out full-page newspaper ads targeting teachers' unions at the height of rocky negotiations earlier this year, which coincided with twin byelections in Ottawa. ○ The "apparent contravention" of campaign finance laws means Vaughan Working Families could face a police investigation and prosecution by the Crown. If convicted, it could be slapped with a fine of up to $5,000. ○ Ford reiterated he and the PC party "had nothing to do with that." ○ Asked if Annibale could lose his role on the LCBO board or face other consequences on the appointment side, Ford said he wouldn't know Annibale if someone gave him a million bucks. ○ Elections Ontario has referred the case to the attorney general's office.

● Hentrose Nelson, one of two Black civil servants who last year launched legal action against the Ontario Public Service alleging discrimination, will be appealing her case to the province's top court after a lower court tossed it out in April, citing jurisdictional issues, Queen's Park Today has learned. ○ In his April decision, Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas said that because Nelson was a member of AMAPCEO, the union that represents administrative and management-level public servants, her allegations should be handled as a workplace grievance. "A court's jurisdiction is ousted when a plaintiff is under a collective bargaining regime," he wrote. ○ Meanwhile, 45 lawyers working for the Ministry of the Attorney General have written to cabinet secretary Steven Davidson detailing "countless instances" of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. The CBC got its hands on the note.

● CAMH is calling for a new model when it comes to front-line mental health and crisis care — one that does not involve police. “Police should not be the first responders when people are in crisis in the community. Police are not trained in crisis care and should not be expected to lead this important work,” the hospital said in a statement. ○ Instead, governments should develop mental health responder teams and invest more strategically in community mental health and early intervention.

● Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley has the scuttlebut on a cabinet shuffle.

Appointments and employments

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario ● After more than five years, information and privacy watchdog Brian Beamish officially handed over the reins to his predecessor yesterday. New watchdog Patricia Kosseim was sworn in at the legislature.

Funding announcements

New transit cash for Peterborough ● Lawmakers from all three levels of government, including Infrastructure Minister Laurie Scott, announced about $14 million in funding to revamp Peterbough’s bus system Wednesday, with about $4.8 million of that coming from the province. ○ The cash comes via the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream of Ottawa’s infrastructure plan, a program the PCs and the federal Liberal government had squabbled about ahead of last year’s federal election.

Question Period

NDP lead-off Escape from long-term care ● Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath kicked off Wednesday's debate with a horror story from a woman who says her LTC resident mother was schlepped in and out of rooms with COVID-19 positive residents. Horwath wanted to know why the PCs are considering legal liability protection for people and organizations that contributed to the spread of COVID-19. "Why is the government bending over backwards to protect these companies who have put vulnerable Ontarians in danger?"

● Premier Doug Ford repeated his lines about holding homes accountable and boasted his government's "independent commission" that launches in July. "The last thing I’m ever going to do is protect any of these companies, especially the ones that have dropped the ball," he told the house.

● According to Horwath, the woman had to fight "tooth and nail" to get her mother taken to a hospital, despite Ford's promise that anyone who needed to be admitted would be.

● Long-term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton was skeptical. "There was never a situation where residents would be stopped from being moved to hospital if that's what they wished." (Recent reporting from the CBC calls that into question.)

Reopening Windsor-Essex, with profanity

● NDP MPPs John Vanthof and Taras Natyshak tag-teamed a question about the government's response to virus outbreaks on farms that wound up with Natyshak heckling the premier as "such a piece of shit." Speaker Ted Arnott asked him to withdraw, which he did.

● Ford was unfazed, briefly remarking it was "the first time" he'd ever heard language like that in the house (debunked here), and plowed ahead with his response.

● Speaking to reporters later, Natyshak apologized to Ford and his fellow MPPs for using unparliamentary language, saying his frustrations and fears over his community of Essex got the best of him. He added he will never apologize for fighting for his community, which has been hardest hit by pandemic job losses, per the FAO.

● Natyshak also accused Ford — his regular sparring partner in the house — of a "personal attack" just before he swore. Indeed, the premier had made a dig about a farmer who, according to him, said Natyshak "has done absolutely nothing" for his riding.

● Asked about the fiery exchange, Ford told reporters it was "water off a duck's back" and he forgave Natyshak. "Let's just move on."

Independent questions ● Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter asked about this week's FAO report on regional job losses. She has been calling for a multi-year financing payback program to give small businesses more time to pay back the government's $10 billion in tax deferrals (or $9 billion from the FAO's vantage point).

● Finance Minister Rod Phillips didn't commit to moving up the payback date from the fall.

PC friendly questions Tory backbenchers lobbed softballs to their ministers about the new math curriculum, support for women fleeing domestic violence, and the beer and wine industry.

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

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