Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report September 14, 2018 Today at Queen’s Park .............................................................................................. 1 Topics of conversation .............................................................................................. 4 Todays events ........................................................................................................... 5 Upcoming events ...................................................................................................... 5 Question period ......................................................................................................... 6 Lobbyist registrations ................................................................................................ 7 Quotation of the day “We have hit a tipping point.” Toronto City Clerk Ulli Watkiss says the province’s continued tinkering with ward boundaries has made it virtually impossible for her office to organize a Toronto municipal election for October 22. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The House is adjourned until Wednesday, September 19 at 9 a.m. The Legislature will not sit on Monday and Tuesday of next week so MPPs can attend the annual International Plowing Match in Chatham-Kent. Thursday’s debates and proceedings The House reconvened at 9 a.m. to continue second reading debate on Bill 4, Cap and Trade Cancellation Act. This was the seventh day of debate on the legislation. NDP leader Andrea Horwath and interim OLP leader John Fraser each filed their intention to introduce a reasoned amendment on Bill 31, Efficient Local Government Act. This procedural move blocks Bill 31 from being debated for two sessional days. With MPPs adjourned Monday and Tuesday, the first day Bill 31 can be debated is next Thursday. One bill and two motions were debated the afternoon’s during private members’ business: • PC MPP Bill Walker put forward a motion calling on the Province of Ontario to adopt a new symbol for accessible parking spaces. The motion passed by voice vote. 2 September 14, 2018 • NDP MPP Gilles Bisson put forward Bill 7, Fairness in Petroleum Products Pricing Act, which aims to have the Ontario Energy Board regulate gas prices. The bill passed second reading by voice vote and was referred to the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly. • PC MPP Daryl Kramp (Hastings—Lennox and Addington) put forward a motion calling on the province to erect a monument on the Queen’s Park lawn for Canadians who served in Afghanistan, which Premier Ford has already announced his intention to do. The motion also passed by voice vote. For the duration of the afternoon, MPPs debated a motion amending the standing orders. It was not voted on. Tories file motion to change standing orders Government House Leader Todd Smith tabled a motion amending the Legislature’s standing orders for the duration of the 42nd Parliament. The motion blocks opposition parties from calling for “adjournment of the debate” during debate on time allocation motions — a filibuster technique that stalls debate by setting off the bells for 30 minutes. The tactic is commonly used by opposition parties at Queen’s Park, including by the PC Party during the last parliament. Smith said the change is not an attack on opposition parties; it is designed to provide more time to debate government legislation. “Obviously we want to get our government legislation passed quickly, and this does give us the opportunity … But it also gives the opposition parties more opportunity to debate the bills as well,” he said. “I think it makes sense for everybody.” The motion would also allow the government to call for evening sittings of the House anytime within the last three weeks of a spring or fall session, rather than the final two, as current rules dictate. The motion also limits the amount of time allotted for an opposition day debate to two hours. In a show of goodwill to the Ontario Liberal Party and the Green Party of Ontario, the government will allow independent members to respond to ministerial statements. But interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the change is “a morsel,” so long as the premier continues to deny his seven-person caucus official party status. For the first time, Fraser confirmed with reporters that the premier denied his formal request for party status. Fraser said the government’s motivation for the standing order changes is to “allow itself more time at the end of the session to jam through legislation.” Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner echoed the sentiment. Copyright © 2018 Queen’s Park Today queensparktoday.ca 3 September 14, 2018 “The house leader’s thrown in a few carrots to the independent parties to distract from the fact that they’re actually giving the government more power, and I think that’s dangerous and not good for democracy,” Schreiner said. NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson had the strongest words. He accused Ford of working to “consolidate power in his office” and “steamrolling” over the democratic process at Queen’s Park. Asked by a reporter how many times the Tories rang the bells on time allocation motions when they were in the opposition benches, Smith could not say. “I have no idea,” he said and laughed. “It was a number of times on certain issues … If it was something we felt strongly about. There will still be that opportunity for the opposition to ring bells, we’re just limiting the number of adjournment motions that can occur.” Lastly, the proposed changes to the standing orders will speed up private members’ business by ensuring a final vote is called immediately after the completion of debate — as it stands, the Speaker suspends the House if debate on private members’ business does not take up all of its allotted two-and-a-half hours. Bill 31 to pass within two weeks: Government House Leader Government House Leader Todd Smith expects the bill cutting Toronto city council by almost half to pass third reading within two weeks. “Best case scenario — the week of the 24th, this will pass,” Smith told reporters after Thursday’s question period, a day after Bill 31, the Efficient Local Government Act, was introduced. Smith acknowledged Bill 31 “certainly” would have passed sooner if the House was not adjourning from its “emergency session” on Monday and Tuesday next week to attend the International Plowing Match. “While we’re committed to making sure this bill passes as expeditiously as possible, the tradition around here has been that we do break for the International Plowing Match, and I think that might be an offence to the people of rural Ontario should we not be there,” Smith said. The other party leaders agreed with him: The motion to adjourn passed with unanimous consent. Meanwhile, Toronto city councillors voted to instruct the city’s solicitor, Wendy Walberg, “to exhaust all legal avenues, including the appeal of any further judicial rulings” to challenge Bill 31. Toronto City Clerk Ulli Watkiss also warned councillors it’s becoming “virtually impossible” to pull off either the 47-ward or 25-ward options for the civic election. “We have hit a tipping point,” Watkiss said. Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark maintained he’s “confident” the clerk will be able to carry out the vote on October 22. Copyright © 2018 Queen’s Park Today queensparktoday.ca 4 September 14, 2018 The PCs also circulated an email from Ontario Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa to Cabinet Secretary Steve Orsini outlining the ways Elections Ontario is providing support to the city clerk, including sharing information from the provincial voters’ list. “I have been in pretty constant contact with [Watkiss] and have offered additional support should she require any,” Essensa said. Topics of conversation • The Ministry of Health quietly announced it is winding down the former Wynne government’s Self-Directed Personal Support Services Ontario agency. Quietly rolled out by former health minister Eric Hoskins beginning in November 2017, Personal Support Services Ontario was intended to amalgamate all Ontario homecare workers under one government-run agency. It led the province into a lawsuit from 11 existing homecare agencies who said the government-managed system would “have dire consequences for patients and their families, for service providers and their employees and for the home care and health care systems at large." o The lawsuit alleged the former Liberal government set up the agency in order to make it easier for SEIU Healthcare, which, at the time, sponsored attack ads against then PC leader Patrick Brown, to unionize homecare workers. o Home Care Ontario CEO Sue VanderBent is quoted in the Ministry of Health’s notice of the change, saying, “Home Care Ontario fully supports Minister Christine Elliott’s decision to wind down the Self-Directed Personal Support Services Ontario agency and thanks the Ford government for their leadership and support.” • On Tuesday, the Ministry of the Environment opened an online consultation portal on the cap-and-trade system wind down on the province’s Environment Registry. The public consultation, which was not announced in a press release, is open until October 11. o Also on Tuesday, Greenpeace Canada announced it is suing the government for failing to properly consult on its “rash teardown” of the cap-and-trade system. • Premier Doug Ford took to the Toronto Sun’s editorial pages to defend his use of Section 33 of the Charter, the notwithstanding clause, to cut the size of Toronto city council by nearly half. In the op-ed, Ford touches on many of his key hits when it comes to operations at City Hall, including that it is “completely dysfunctional,” “bloated” and “inefficient” — and says slashing the number of councillors would save tax dollars and streamline the decision-making process. o He also called out so-called critics of the recently re-tabled Efficient Local Government Act. o “[The] people most loudly fighting against the Better Local Government Act are a handful of left-wing city councillors who are desperately trying to save their taxpayer-funded jobs along with a network of activists and special interests who have entrenched their power under the status quo,” the premier says in the Sun.