“Excuse Me, Is This the Ontario Cannabis Store?”

Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report May 21, 2019

Quotation of the day

“Excuse me, is this the Ontario Cannabis Store?”

NDP comms staffer Michelle Ervin says she was asked on the steps of the Pink Palace if recreational pot is sold inside. (Queen’s Park is listed as the OCS address on Google.)

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule MPPs are working in their ridings for the constituency week; the House convenes on Monday, May 27, at 10:30 a.m. for question period.

There are eight sitting days scheduled on the countdown to the summer break.

Committees this week The Standing Committee on General Government convenes Tuesday and Wednesday for public hearings on Bill 107, Getting Ontario Moving Act, which among other things would enable the Toronto subway upload.

Canada lifts retaliatory tariffs after US lifts steel and aluminum levies Canada and Mexico lifted retaliatory tariffs on a smorgasbord of U.S. products, including beef and bourbon, after the U.S. signed deals to remove the levies it imposed on Canadian and Mexican metals imports.

On Friday, Washington agreed to remove the 25 per cent levy on steel and 10 per cent tariff on aluminum, which were introduced in 2018 on the basis of national security concerns.

The agreement would also scrap the counter tariffs Canada slapped on a wide range of American goods such as orange juice, whiskey, playing cards and licorice, as well as steel and aluminum, in retaliation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it “pure good news” for the country.

Premier Doug Ford and Economic Development and Trade Minister Todd Smith echoed the sentiment, saying in a statement that Friday was “a good day” for the metals industry, Ontario and workers.

“We are pleased that Canada was able to get it done,” Ford and Smith said, striking a different tone compared to previous criticism over the federal government’s handling of the file.

The PCs lobbied Ottawa hard to remove the tariffs and also made the case to Washington officials; they even had to backtrack on a demand that the federal government scrap the counter-measures imposed on U.S. goods to match those imposed on Canadian metals shipments.

Premier’s office confirms fourth staffer departure in a week Mitch Davidson, executive director of policy to Premier Doug Ford, will leave his role this summer, becoming the fourth staffer in Ford’s office in a week to make their departure known.

“Mitch had clearly stated his desire to usher in an orderly transition between leaders through the creation and implementation of the PC Party platform and the government’s first year of legislation and budgetary policy,” Ford’s executive director of communications Laryssa Waler said in an email to Queen’s Park Today.

Davidson has worked as a policy adviser in the PC Party since 2014 and helped write its 2018 election platform under Ford.

Greg Harrington, currently adviser to Dean French, Premier Doug Ford’s chief of staff, will take on the exec policy adviser role.

Earlier that week the premier’s office said longtime Tory operative David Tarrant would be headed back to the private sector after a stint as Ford’s executive director of strategic communications.

Matt Bondy has taken up the mantle from Tarrant; he was previously chief of staff to Education Minister Lisa Thompson.

On Thursday it was revealed communications staffers Simon Jefferies and Veronica Green are joining federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s office on Parliament Hill. Kayla Iafelice, currently comms director to the education minister, will replace Jefferies as Ford’s director of media relations.

Waler described the high-level staff mini-shakeup as par for the course as the Ford government comes up on its first year.

“As we come to the end of our first year it is natural and expected to have some staffing shifts, especially with the federal political scene heating up,” Waler said. She added the PCs are still in a “strong position” to deliver their mandate thanks to contributions from staff across ministries.

Today’s events

May 21 at 12:20 p.m. – Thunder Bay Education Minister Lisa Thompson will make an announcement about Ontario's First Nations, Métis and Inuit education curriculum.

May 21 at 1 p.m. – Ajax Premier Doug Ford will address the Ajax-Pickering board of trade and Oshawa and Whitby chambers of commerce at the Deer Creek Golf Club. Ford is expected to make an announcement about funding for municipalities.

May 21 at 2 p.m. – Kenora Energy Minister Greg Rickford will make an announcement at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area.

May 21 at 4:35 p.m. – Toronto Premier Ford will address the Collision tech conference at the Enercare Centre. QPT will be there on the ground.

Upcoming events

May 29 at 6 p.m. – Toronto Labour Minister Laurie Scott is hosting a “cottage country summer kick-off” themed fundraiser for her Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock PC riding association at Craft Brasserie and Grille in downtown Toronto. Tickets go for $500 apiece.

Topics of conversation

● Municipalities say they may be forced to raise taxes or slash services as they deal with what’s expected to be over half a billion dollars in lost annual provincial funding and revenue, the Canadian Press reports.

● The Globe and Mail has the details on a $300-per-person federal fundraiser for CPC candidate Krystina Waler attended by Ontario Energy Minister Greg Rickford and held at the private residence of an energy executive who is on the board of the Ontario Energy Association, a group lobbies the government on behalf of the industry.

○ Paul Grod, president and CEO of Rodan Energy — a management company that counts OPG and Bruce Power among its clientele — reportedly hosted the event last Thursday in Toronto. ○ Waler previously worked in the minister of natural resources and forestry office. She’s also sister to Laryssa Waler, Premier Doug Ford’s executive director of communications.

● More provincial funding cuts have been revealed, including to a small business program and research institutes studying artificial intelligence.

● The PC’s popularity took a hit post-budget, a recent Pollara Strategic Insights public-opinion survey suggests. Less than a year after clinching a majority election victory with 40 per cent of the vote, the Ford government slipped to second place with 30 per cent support, while the NDP eked out a narrow lead (within the 2.5 per cent margin of error) at 31 per cent. ○ Pollara was in the field between April 28 and May 1 — three weeks after the spring budget was released — and surveyed 1,527 Ontario voters online. The firm says the poll is considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. ○ The other opposition parties also got an approval bump. Twenty-six per cent of respondents backed the Liberals, while 11 per cent preferred the Greens.

● About 100 protesters clad in garb inspired by Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale crashed Niagara West PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s community coffee event with constituents at the Grimsby legion last week in frustration over his recent anti-abortion comments. ○ Oosterhoff left before the event was scheduled to end, but his pickup truck was blocked by demonstrators for about 20 minutes. The Grimsby Lincoln News has all the details.

● Forty-six per cent of Ontarians say rising gas prices are making it hard for them to afford “the necessities,” per a new Angus Reid poll.

News releases - governmental Ministry of the Solicitor General ● The province is seeking public feedback on the future of paw patrol. People have until June 6 to weigh in on how animal cruelty laws should be enforced as the government rewrites a 100-year-old law that was deemed unconsitutional by the Superior Court, which ruled it granted the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Anlmals, a private charity, broad policing enforcement powers without accountability measures. ○ The government agreed to the OSPCA’s three-month extension offer to enforce animal welfare rules through a “transition phase” until the end of June.

○ Humane societies may soon be allowed to cover enforcement when the OSPCA bows out next month and until the government can draft new legislation in the fall, CBC reports. ○ The Ford government is appealing the Superior Court’s ruling.

Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities ● The province has appointed an expert panel to advise on how it can “maximize commercialization opportunities” and help protect intellectual property created in the province’s postsecondary education sector and at its tech incubators. ○ The panel’s members include: ● Jim Balsillie, retired chairman and Co-CEO of Research In Motion (now Blackberry), co-founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators, and founder and chair of the Centre for International Governance Innovation; ● Dr. Shiri Breznitz, associate professor of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and U of T; ● Myra Tawfik, professor of intellectual property commercialization and strategy at the University of Windsor; ● Dr. Dan Herman, vice-president of strategy and partnerships at Myant Inc., a textile computing firm; and ● Natalie Raffoul, managing partner of Brion Raffoul Intellectual Property Law.

Funding announcements

● The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport is touting the $17 million it is handing out to municipalities to spend on summer festivals, including $4 million for “blockbuster events.” ○ Meanwhile, NDP MPP Paul Miller slammed the government for cutting 20 per cent of Tourism Hamilton’s annual funding, calling it “short sighted.” (Funding cuts to Tourism Toronto and Tourism Ottawa were also uncovered post-budget.)

● On Friday, the Ministry of Infrastructure announced $71 million to improve mobile broadband and get rid of cellular dead zones in Eastern Ontario. ○ The announcement got a stamp of approval from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce CEO Rocco Rossi who called it “smart and strategic.”

● Sault Ste. Marie-based Invasive Species Centre is getting a $850,000 funding injection from the province to support research and management of invasive species, response planning, management and habitat restoration, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said last week.

○ The Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines also announced a boost for Sault Ste. Marie — the city will receive $600,000 to help revitalize its downtown care.

● The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will spend up to $25 million to expand the stem cell transplant unit at Hamilton’s Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre. ○ When it opens in 2021, the centre will house a new 15-bed inpatient unit for patients undergoing stem cell transplants and other complex cancer treatments.

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

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