October 4, 2019
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Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report October 4, 2019 Quotation of the day “In the end, we failed to deliver on the expectation that the first woman premier would be the change. There would be no second chance.” Longtime Liberal operative Pat Sorbara reflects on the party’s historic 2018 election defeat in Let ‘Em Howl: Lessons from a Life in Backroom Politics, which hits the shelves tomorrow. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The house is on extended recess until Monday, October 28. Premier watch Premier Doug Ford was in Sudbury Thursday night for a $600-a-head PC Party fundraiser. Families and advocates of kids on the autism spectrum had plans to protest outside the event. The premier is still mostly laying low during the ongoing federal election campaign. Aside from the fundraiser, social media does not show him making any other public appearances this week. At least hockey is back to occupy the premier’s time underground: Ford tweeted and shared three pro-Toronto Maple Leafs messages on Twitter, including a congrats to new captain John Tavares. PCs walk back two more cuts to provincial programs The PC’s $67-million cut to the Transition Child Benefit is no longer on the chopping block. According to the Toronto Star, the province informed municipalities late Wednesday it is also walking back changes to earning exemptions (the amount of money a person on social assistance can earn at a part-time job before the government starts clawing back their benefits). It’s unclear whether the controversial plan to change the definition of disability under social assistance to align with federal programs is still on the table. The Transition Child Benefit helps families on social assistance, and refugee claimants in particular, feed and clothe their kids. Opposition MPPs hammered the PCs for cancelling the fund during question period last spring. At the time, Attorney General Caroline Mulroney maintained refugee services were a federal responsibility. NDP Community and Social Services critic Lisa Gretzky said the “cruel” cuts should never have been made in the first place “While the Ford government is now frantically backtracking, it’s clear that its ‘cut-first-think-later’ agenda remains in place,” Gretzky said, adding that her party will be monitoring to ensure the Ford government “isn’t merely kicking the can down the road, with plans to plow ahead with these cuts as soon as the federal election is over.” Meanwhile, the PCs are also reversing a $28-million budget cut to children’s aid societies, per the Star. Instead, at the end of September, the province’s 50 children’s aid societies were transferred $23 million more than the $1.5 billion they received in 2018. Children and Social Services Minister Todd Smith told the Star he is keeping funding stable while he consults with the vulnerable children organizations about reforms. Even with the funding boost, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies said the local organizations will still be operating with deficits. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he is glad funding has been restored, but that the move “seems more like a decision driven by Ford’s plummeting popularity than by the interests of children.” The about-faces are two of many the Ford government has made when faced with public backlash, including reversals on cuts to municipalities, francophone services and children with autism. Today’s events October 4 at 1 p.m. — Thunder Bay Energy Minister Greg Rickford will make an announcement at Wisk Air, a helicopter service for firefighting, mining, medivac, electric and sightseeing operations in the north. Topics of conversation ● Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau doesn’t have a monopoly on Doug Ford bashing on the federal campaign trail. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh took shots at Ford while in Toronto Thursday, saying the premier “is making life harder for people” by “slashing and painfully cutting” funding for education, health care, affordable housing and autism services. ○ Singh also jabbed at ex-premier Kathleen Wynne’s decision to sell off Hydro One, saying it “surely benefited” folks on Bay Street, but drove up hydro bills for regular families. ○ Singh is an ex-Queen’s Park MPP and Ontario NDP deputy leader, but his time at the legislature never overlapped with Ford’s. ● Theatre Ontario is staring down its final curtain call. The board of the advocacy and educational group, which has been around since 1971, said its “financial situation has deteriorated over the past several years” and the Ford government delivered the “final blow” when it cut funding to the Ontario Arts Council earlier this year. ○ That meant an eight per cent reduction to its operating funding and the suspension of its professional and youth training programs. ○ It also means layoffs for long-time staffers Raeburn Ferguson and Brandon Moore. ○ “This is a very difficult recommendation for the board to make, as it means shutting down an arts service organization that has a 48-year history of supporting the theatre and arts communities of Ontario,” says a release. ● Ontario’s biggest school board says it will shut down should CUPE support staff go ahead with a full-fledged strike on Monday. On Thursday, the Toronto District School Board joined York Region, Peel and the Waterloo and Dufferin-Peel Catholic boards in telling parents they may have to look into alternative arrangements because schools could not stay open if thousands of workers walk off the job. ○ CUPE, the province and the school board trustee association return to the bargaining table this afternoon and plan to meet over the weekend. However the union, which launched work-to-rule action this week, said it is willing to up the ante and go on strike if they can’t get a fair agreement. ● Ontario’s human rights watchdog launched a public inquiry to zero in on the issues impacting grade school students with reading disabilities on Thursday. Chief Human Rights Commissioner Renu Mandhane cited EQAO data that suggests students’ literacy rates aren’t up to provincial standards, which can increase the likelihood of other troubling consequences such as dropping out of school, experiencing homelessness or becoming involved in criminal activity. ○ Mandhane said 25 per cent of Grade 3 students and 53 per cent of third-graders with disabilities do not meet provincial literacy standards. ● Pour one out for the distillers. An economic analysis commissioned by the Association of Canadian Distillers warns the Ford government’s plan to expand beer and wine sales could hurt the spirits industry and temper local demand for their products. The Toronto Star has the story. News briefs — governmental Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs ● Minister Ernie Hardeman teased a bill he plans to introduce when the legislature resumes sitting this fall aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on agricultural and horticultural organizations. ○ The bill would allow those groups to give notice of annual meetings via email, easing the mail-only requirement and lowering compliance costs by $100,000 per year. The Ontario Horticultural Association would also be able to create minimum standards for membership, which it is currently prevented from doing. ○ Treasurers won’t be forced to give security to cover any loss of funds for the organization, and board directors won’t be personally on the hook. ○ The government is also proposing to remove an “unnecessary” clause that gives agricultural organizations authority over certain horse racing activities; currently, horse racing is regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Ministry of Health ● Energy Minister Greg Rickford was in Geraldton, a town northeast of Thunder Bay, to re-announce $17.8 million to revamp the local hospital’s emergency ward. ○ Rickford made the announcement on behalf of Health Minister Christine Elliott. ○ The project is expected to be complete by spring 2021. Teaser: Pat Sorbara’s Let ‘Em Howl: Lessons from a Life in Backroom Politics Longtime political operative Pat Sorbara has a new memoir out Saturday that dishes on the Sudbury byelection trial, backroom political drama and the Ontario Liberal Party’s historic election defeat last spring. The ex-deputy chief of staff to then-Premier Kathleen Wynne was acquitted of bribery charges under the Election Act in the 2017 Sudbury byelection case, but was subsequently dumped from the party’s 2018 re-election team. Here’s a few highlights from Let ‘Em Howl: Lessons from a Life in Backroom Politics. Post-Sudbury trial In hindsight, the Sudbury case was “intense,” “convoluted” and subject to “political spin,” according to Sorbara. Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed were both charged after wannabe Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier released audio of phone calls where the two operatives allegedly tried to convince him to drop out of the nomination race to make room for preferred candidate Glenn Thibeault, who later won the byelection and became energy minister. “You kicked ass,” co-campaign director David Herle of the Gandalf Group told Sorbara at post-trial celebrations at Italian restaurant Verdicchio. She says she was “flying high” when she was eventually cleared, but “little did [she] know how wrong things were about to go.” Lougheed was also acquitted of the charges. ‘No single answer’ for 2018 defeat Sorbara, the architect behind Wynne’s unlikely 2014 victory, says the reasons for the Liberals’ brutal election loss last June are “layered” and go beyond the typical hurdles facing women in politics. “In the end, we failed to deliver on the expectation that the first woman premier would be the change. There would be no second chance.” But before that, days ahead of the vote, Wynne effectively conceded the premiership. For Sorbara’s part, “it was vintage Kathleen Wynne.” Wynne was told internal polling confirmed external polling heralding her election defeat.