Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report January 27, 2020 Quotation of the day “Peace room.” What the premier’s office says it is calling its logistics office dealing with teachers’ strikes. ​ ​ Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule There are three more weeks left of the winter break. The house will reconvene on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. Premier watch Premier Doug Ford was in Mississauga Friday to re-announce funding for community policing. ​ ​ Specifically, the Peel Regional Police is getting $20.5 million from the Community Safety and Policing grant program, a $195-million envelope the PCs announced in mid-December. In Peel, some of the cash will go towards more neighbourhood watch services, police town halls and “cultural community outreach.” "My message to the criminals that are watching us now: we are coming for you, we are going to find you and we are going to lock you up for a long time,” Ford said at the news conference, which featured a well-armed police backdrop. ​ ​ Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, Attorney General Doug Downey, local PC MPPs and ex-PC ​ ​ ​ ​ leader-turned-mayor-of-Brampton Patrick Brown were also in tow. ​ ​ Brown and Ford had their first official sit-down since Ford took office at the Peel police station ​ ​ where the announcement took place. The pair discussed crime, CCTV cameras, courthouse resources and health care, according to the mayor. “I appreciate the cooperative tone,” Brown tweeted, alongside a “prayer hands” emoji. Ford defended the decision to appoint Toronto police constable Randall Arsenault to the ​ ​ Ontario Human Rights Commission, despite the fact he was not part of the official candidate selection process. Ontario’s chief commissioner of human rights, Renu Mandhane, has suggested there could be ​ ​ a conflict of interest because the commission is currently probing racial profiling by Toronto Police Services, but Downey said his office went through the “all the appropriate processes to do the conflict checks, to do the background, to do all that sort of thing.” Ford and Downey called it a “phenomenal” appointment and said appointees can recuse themselves from aspects of the job, should a conflict arise. The premier didn’t rule out recent reports that Metrolinx is considering charging for parking in GO transit lots. Ford confirmed he doesn’t like taxes or service charges, and should the plan go forward the government will “do everything we can to keep the cost as low as possible.” He also defended the PC’s proposal to allow developers to hire their own building inspectors, saying it is necessary because of the backlog for municipal inspectors. “We have to get development moving,” he said. “The problem we’re facing right now is supply and demand.” The City of Toronto opposes the plan and is considering a legal challenge. On Saturday, Ford was in Ottawa for a pre-budget consultation with small business owners. “The number one comment I heard from them is ‘keep doing what you’re doing,’” Ford said on ​ Twitter. The PCs have been conducting their own budget consultations in tandem with the ​ legislative committee that handles the file. Today’s events January 27 at 10 a.m. – Toronto ​ Representatives from CUPE will give an update in the Queen’s Park media studio on how the union is spending $78 million in student services funding it received as part of CUPE’s recent collective agreement with the government. January 27 at 2 p.m. – Oakville ​ Finance Minister Rod Phillips and local MPPs Effie Triantafilopoulos, Jane McKenna and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Stephen Crawford will hold a pre-budget consultation at Oakville Conference Centre. ​ Topics of conversation ● Ontario has its first “presumptive confirmed case” of coronavirus. The patient, a 50-year-old-man, is in isolation at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams confirmed the details at a news conference on Saturday ​ ​ evening. Nine other cases are under investigation. ○ Public health officials are now trying to locate passengers who were seated near ​ ​ the patient on his recent flight from China. ○ Health Minister Christine Elliott, who recently added coronavirus to the list of ​ ​ diseases reportable under Ontario's public health legislation, said “the province is prepared to actively identify, prevent and control the spread of this serious infectious disease.” The government set up a website to update the public and ​ ​ has briefed directors of education. ● Teachers in French and elementary classrooms have more job action planned this week as negotiations with the province and school boards remain at a near standstill. ○ AEFO, the union representing francophone teachers, is set to launch a second phase of work-to-rule Tuesday, which will further restrict administrative duties. ○ The union is scheduled to return to the bargaining table on Wednesday and Thursday. ○ Unless a deal with the province is reached, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario will continue rotating one-day walkouts this week. ETFO members will strike in five boards on Tuesday and four others on Wednesday. ○ At his news conference Friday, Premier Doug Ford claimed he has heard from ​ ​ teachers who are “fed up with the unions” and their leadership and want to put the bargaining dispute behind them. However, last year teachers in each of the province’s four unions voted more than 95 per cent in favour of strike action. ○ An EKOS poll released last Thursday found 57 per cent of Ontarians are siding ​ ​ with teachers during ongoing strike action, although 72 per cent of respondents who identify as PC supporters are onside with the government. ● A Thursday ruling from the Ontario Court of Appeal threw the province’s court system into chaos. The court upheld a new federal law banning peremptory challenges — a mechanism that allowed Crown and defence attorneys to veto potential jurors — but ruled that any accused person who opted for a trial by jury before September 19, the day the law came into effect, could still use the mechanism. ○ This means dozens of ongoing trials where the judge followed the law and didn’t allow peremptory challenges have been halted, and many more concluded trials could have their verdicts overthrown. The Toronto Star has more details. ​ ​ ​ ● Children’s Services Minister Todd Smith is extending needs-based autism funding until ​ ​ a new system is in place next year, the Globe and Mail reports. However, that funding ​ ​ ​ ​ will only go to families previously enrolled in the Liberal-era program; newer applicants will have to rely on the PC’s capped funding program, which provides a maximum of $20,000 per year. ● It’s not over till it’s over. That’s the message from Liberal leadership candidate Michael ​ Coteau, reacting to news that rival Steven Del Duca signed up more delegate ​ ​ ​ candidates than the other five candidates combined. Coteau accused Del Duca supporters of spreading a “misleading” narrative around the delegate candidate tally, saying it excludes hundreds of independent candidates. ○ Coteau’s team says it is working to get every one of its 1,234 delegate candidates elected so it can take “this fight to change our party and province to the convention floor.” ○ Del Duca signed up 2,684 delegates. Kate Graham recruited 623, Mitzie Hunter ​ ​ ​ has 409, Alvin Tedjo has 137 and Brenda Hollingsworth has 66. ​ ​ ​ ​ ○ Coteau also amped an endorsement from former Brampton West Liberal MPP Vic Dhillon. ​ ○ Party members decide their next leader on March 7. ● The Green Party has named its candidates for upcoming byelections in Orléans and Ottawa—Vanier. Engineer and urban development guru Benjamin Koczwarski will rep ​ ​ the Greens in Vanier, and Andrew West, a local lawyer and the party’s Attorney General ​ ​ critic, will run in Orléans. ○ Premier Doug Ford has less than a week to call a byelection in Ottawa—Vanier, ​ ​ and Orléans must be called by March 23. He’s expected to set the same date for both races. The PCs named their candidates last week. Both ridings are Liberal strongholds. ● NDP Leader Andrea Horwath visited a safe injection site in Ottawa Friday that she says ​ ​ is at risk of closing because the province cut its funding. The site, located in the Byward Market, was operating with temporary federal funding, but Horwath says that has dried up and now Ottawa Public Health is covering the costs. ○ Health Minister Christine Elliott has authorized continued funding for some safe ​ ​ injection sites, but others have wound down over the past year. ● Sean Granville, chief nuclear officer at Ontario Power Generation, issued a statement ​ saying OPG supports the PC’s promised investigation into the false emergency alert regarding the Pickering nuclear plant and reiterated the energy generator “was in no way involved in the issuing of the alert.” Appointments and employments Shakeup in Mulroney’s office amid Hamilton LRT fallout ● Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney is on the hunt for a new chief of staff ​ ​ following a shakeup in her office, the Globe reports. Her former chief, Leif Malling, has ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ moved to the premier’s office where he will serve as a special advisor. ○ PC Party veteran Deb Hutton has been appointed Mulroney’s interim chief of ​ ​ staff until a new one can be found. Hutton was a former top advisor to ex-premier Mike Harris. ​ ○ Greg Medulun, the executive director for Finance Minister Rod Phillips, will now ​ ​ ​ serve as Mulroney’s director for communications and issues management. ○ The shakeup came the day after Mulroney appointed a special task force to determine how to spend $1 billion on transportation in Hamilton after the PCs abruptly pulled the plug on the city’s LRT project, citing higher-than-expected cost estimates. Funding announcements Ministry of Labour ● Labour Minister Monte McNaughton has allocated nearly $1 million in funding for skilled ​ ​ trades development programs in London.