Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report March 7, 2019 Quotation of the day “God help you if you cross the premier. That’s the message.” Julian Falconer, counsel for former OPP deputy commissioner Brad Blair, tells reporters due ​ ​ ​ process was breached when his client was fired. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule Today is the last sitting day before MPPs head back to their ridings for the March Break constituency week. The House convenes at 9 a.m. The government is expected to call Bill 74, People’s Health ​ ​ Care Act, for morning debate. A Tory backbench bill and motion, as well as the first-ever piece of legislation proposed by a Green Party MPP, are on the docket for this afternoon’s private members’ business: ● PC MPP Christine Hogarth will move second reading of Bill 65, Protecting Our Pets ​ ​ ​ ​ Act, which would establish an advisory committee to report on the quality of care for companion animals kept for entertainment, breeding, exhibition, boarding, hire or sale. ○ Hogarth will talk about her bill in the media studio this morning alongside the Association of Animal Shelter Administrators of Ontario. ● PC MPP Donna Skelly will put forward a motion calling on the government to implement ​ ​ a province-wide “industry stewardship plan” to promote a no-cost program that encourages unwanted clothing and textiles be donated to local charitable and non-profit organizations. ● Green Leader Mike Schreiner will put forward Bill 71, Paris Galt Moraine Conservation ​ ​ ​ ​ Act, his party’s inaugural provincial private member’s bill. The proposal is designed to protect the drinking water supply in Schreiner’s home riding of Guelph, and in Wellington County and Waterloo region. The Standing Committee on Justice Policy meets today for the only day of public hearings on Bill 68, Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act. Police associations, civil and human rights ​ groups and legal experts have signed up to speak. Wednesday’s debates and proceedings MPPs continued second-reading debate of Bill 74 in the morning. ​ ​ Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, cleared a second-reading vote (Ayes 64; Nays ​ 32) after question period. The omnibus bill is now off to be studied by the Standing Committee on General Government, where the PCs are expected to amend or delete the controversial Schedule 10 of the legislation after it was panned by farmers, advocates, Opposition critics and ​ several municipalities as a threat to protected Greenbelt lands. (Schedule 10 would allow for "Open for Business" planning by-laws, which would permit developers to bypass certain protections in the Clean Water Act and Places to Grow Act.) Four private member’s bills hit the clerk’s table in the afternoon: ● NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa’s Bill 76, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of ​ ​ ​ ​ Indigenous Peoples Act; ● PC MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos’s Bill 77, Hellenic Heritage Month Act; ​ ​ ​ ​ ● PC MPP Goldie Ghamari’s Bill 78, Supporting Ontario’s Community, Rural and ​ ​ ​ ​ Agricultural Newspapers Act; and ● PC MPP Ross Romano’s Bill 79, Algoma University Amendment Act. ​ ​ ​ ​ In the afternoon MPPs began third reading of Bill 48, Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act. ​ ​ In the park The Ontario Pharmacists Association have scheduled a lobby day and lunch reception at the legislature. In the evening, the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians will throw a launch party for the first book ever written about the creators of the artwork hung inside the Pink Palace. Many of the artists who painted premiers’ portraits will be in attendance. Federal Tory MPs Erin O’Toole and Brad Butt — alongside former prime minister Stephen ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Harper’s chief of staff, Ray Novak — visited the legislature Wednesday, as did ex-Liberal MPPs ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Jeff Leal and Lou Rinaldi. ​ ​ ​ Ron Taverner cut as future OPP commissioner Premier Doug Ford’s longtime friend Ron Taverner asked that he no longer be considered to ​ ​ ​ ​ lead the Ontario Provincial Police, after the government faced a hail of criticism over the appointment. Taverner wrote to Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones late Wednesday saying he wanted ​ ​ “to protect the integrity of rank and file police officers given the controversy surrounding my appointment.” “This decision is not an easy one for me to make,” Taverner said. Jones’s office said in a statement the Ford government accepted his withdrawal. “Interim commissioner Gary Couture remains in his post. We will have more to say about the role of the ​ ​ Commissioner in the near future.” Ford — who was accused of dodging questions from reporters and the Opposition about the drama after skipping all three question periods this week — said “it is very unfortunate that the opposition has chosen to politicize this process rather than focusing on how we can support our front-line officers.” “On behalf of the government, I want to thank Ron Taverner for putting his name forward. His fifty years of policing experience and support for the front-lines would have been a tremendous asset to the OPP and to the people of Ontario,” the premier said in a statement. Taverner’s request comes two days after the firing of former OPP deputy commissioner Brad ​ Blair. Blair has been in court trying to force Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé to probe the hiring ​ ​ process that led to Taverner being appointed to the position in the first place; a hearing is slated for April 26. And on Wednesday, Julian Falconer — a lawyer acting for Blair, who was fired after contesting ​ ​ Taverner’s nomination and revealing information about Ford’s request for a custom OPP van — said his client’s dismissal was “completely legally suspect.” Jones and Ford have denied any political interference in Blair’s firing. Jones said the decision ​ ​ ​ ​ was made by deputy community safety minister Mario Di Tommaso and approved by the ​ ​ top-level bureaucrats on the Public Service Commission, which handles ministry-side HR issues. Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake has also been investigating Taverner’s recruitment. ​ ​ In addition, the Toronto Star reported that a sexual harassment tribunal case Taverner was ​ ​ ​ scheduled to testify at later this month could be cancelled because the adjudicator abruptly dropped off the case, despite already hearing from 32 witnesses. The allegations have to do with years of sexual harassment by supervising officers at 23 Division in Etobicoke, which Taverner oversees. MacLeod to skip big autism rally citing ‘credible threats’ Children Services Minister Lisa MacLeod — who has faced repeated criticism for her handling ​ ​ of the autism file — says she won’t attend today’s protest against the government’s ​ ​ ​ ​ controversial therapy funding changes. “The tone of the debate has caused me some concern with my own personal security,” MacLeod said to reporters. “We’ve had some credible threats so we’re going to make sure that’s first and foremost … maintaining the safety of me and my team.” She did not elaborate on the nature of any threats or say if she reported them to police. MacLeod said she will be in the House for question period, especially to talk about International Women’s Day as the minister responsible for women’s issues. “We certainly respect people who want to protest peacefully,” she added. MacLeod has faced flak from parents, advocates, academics, service providers and even some prominent conservatives since announcing the PC’s autism program last month, and questions ​ ​ ​ continue to swirl around a purported waitlist freeze and funding. There have been demonstrations outside her constituency office and calls for her to step down, including online via the hashtag “#ResignLisaMacLeod.” MacLeod also apologized for comments she made to autism therapists and for calling the Ontario Autism Coalition — a group of parents and advocates that will demonstrate on the Queen’s Park lawn today alongside Autism Advocacy Ontario — a “professional protest organization.” Reining in health budget needed to get back in black: FAO Budget watchdog Peter Weltman says the Ford government will have to to rein in health-care ​ ​ spending — Ontario’s biggest budget line item — by $8.6 billion by fiscal 2022, if it is to balance the books in four years without raising taxes. That’s the upshot from the Financial Accountability Office’s latest assessment on health sector spending released Wednesday. Tightening the purse strings to such an extent without compromising health-care access or quality would be “a significant challenge” in particular for the Ford administration, which also pledged not to raise taxes on the campaign trail. “Policy changes of this magnitude could have wide-ranging implications for Ontario’s health care system, and Ontarians would benefit from an informed debate on the province’s budget objectives and the trade-offs necessary to achieve them,” Weltman said. The FAO report says health sector spending is expected to balloon to $73.3 billion by 2022-23, which is $12 billion more than today’s over $60 billion arsenal. The increase is owed in large part to a growing and aging population and inflation costs. It also projects the physician services agreement recently inked with Ontario’s doctors would increase OHIP spending by $1.5 billion over the four-year life of the deal. The report is based on the Fall Economic Statement, which doesn’t include any of the health minister’s recently announced overhaul plans. Speaker allows extra Independent questions Speaker Ted Arnott says he will give more question period time to the growing Independent ​ ​ benches but won’t let them organize themselves. The Speaker told the House he’s “done the math” and wants “to ensure that Independent members [have] the chance to participate in the House in accordance with and in proportion to the opportunities all other members have.” As of yesterday, there will be one Independent query per daily question period, with a second question every Tuesday, plus an extra question every alternate Wednesday.