Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report October 17, 2018 Today at Queen’s Park ............................................................................................. 1 Topics of conversation .............................................................................................. 5 Question period ......................................................................................................... 6 Quotation of the day “When it comes to defending his plan for cannabis, Justin Trudeau has been a no-show. When it comes to defending his cannabis plan, he might as well be in the witness protection program.” Premier Doug Ford contends Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been MIA when it comes to helping police deal with cannabis legalization in a speech to the Ontario Provincial Police Association. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The House will convene at 9 a.m. The government’s main order of business Wednesday will be to pass Bill 36, Cannabis Statute Law Amendment Act. The bill was referred back to the House from committee Tuesday and now requires two hours of debate at third reading stage before it faces a vote. It will likely receive Royal Assent immediately after a third reading vote. With cannabis legalization taking place at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, the former Liberal government’s cannabis legalization bill remains the law of the land until Bill 36 passes. There could also be a vote on the government’s motion amending the standing orders. Tuesday’s debates and proceedings In the morning the House debated a time allocation motion filed on the government’s motion to amend the standing orders. It was voted on after question period and carried. In the afternoon, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath put forward an opposition day motion calling on the province to guarantee funding in next year’s budget for a new hospital in Brampton, as well as an expansion of the Peel Memorial Hospital. 2 October 17, 2018 Horwath held a news conference in Brampton earlier Tuesday morning teasing the motion alongside her Brampton MPPs. The motion was defeated by the PC caucus, a move the NDP called “wrong and shameful” (Ayes 35; Nays 65). There was a late-show debate on a question of hospital overcrowding in London triggered by NDP MPP Peggy Sattler, who said she was not satisfied with Tourism Minister Sylvia Jones’s response during question period. In the park In the morning, Credit Unions of Ontario will hold a breakfast reception for MPPs. In the evening, the Canadian Automobile Association will hold a lobby event in the dining room. Members of the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians paid a visit to their old stomping grounds this week. On Tuesday before question period, MPPs paid tribute to former attorney general Roy McMurtry, who served under ex-premier Bill Davis. McMurtry, one of the architects of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, has been in the headlines recently for speaking out against the Ford government’s threatened use of the notwithstanding clause. Former Liberal cabinet ministers Laura Albanese, Tracy MacCharles and Helena Jaczek were also at the legislature. ‘We were a bit shocked’: Top civil servants say concerns over fair hydro plan were ignored by Wynne cabinet Day two of hearings at the Select Committee on Financial Transparency heard testimony from top civil servants Cabinet Secretary Steve Orsini, Deputy Environment Minister Serge Imbrogno, Associate Deputy Minister Karen Hughes and Deputy Transportation Minister Scott Thompson. The bureaucrats told PC and NDP MPPs on the special committee that they expressed serious concerns to former premier Kathleen Wynne and her executive council over the so-called Fair Hydro Plan — in particular over the complex scheme at the centre of the 25-per-cent hydro rate cut. The Fair Hydro Plan allowed the province to borrow $26 billion through a trust set up by Ontario Power Generation, with future ratepayers footing the bill — including up to $21 billion in interest payments. “We were a bit shocked because it was pushing out costs today to future ratepayers,” Imbrogno said of what is known as the Global Adjustment (GA) refinancing. Imbrogno was deputy energy minister at the time, and his ministry had been tasked with coming up with ways to reduce electricity costs, but none of the ones they came up with were picked up by the government. Imbrogno suggested the idea for the GA refinancing came from former energy minister Glenn Thibeault’s office and was first raised at a meeting in December 2016 between the minister’s chief of staff, Andrew Teliszewsky, and other ministry staffers. Orsini said the Cabinet Office put its concerns — including that the hydro relief plan lacked transparency and may face legal challenges — in writing in a 27-page document sent to Wynne’s cabinet on March 1, a day before the Liberals publicly unveiled the Fair Hydro Plan. Copyright © 2018 Queen’s Park Today queensparktoday.ca 3 October 17, 2018 Orsini also said there was no evidence provided to show the plan was actually “feasible.” Asked if he had any power to sway the government of the day on decisions, Orsini said the message from the Wynne administration was that providing hydro rate relief “superseded” the concerns of the public service. Imbrogno said “when the government of the day decides to move forward” on a policy, his job is simply to “make sure it’s fully informed.” In nearly five hours of testimony Monday, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk detailed her position on the former government’s financing of the hydro relief plan and accounting of pension assets. The Tories have accepted the AG’s accounting standard, bumping up the deficit to $15 billion. Lysyk said communications with the Liberal government over the past two years were so rocky that she wasn’t sure her message was getting across and, when asked by PC MPPs on committee if she felt she had been lied to, Lysyk said, “On the Fair Hydro Plan, yes.” Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said that if the AG felt she had been lied to, that’s “a problem.” But he said she should be specific, and that those accused of lying should be able to address those accusations. People “only hear one side of the story” at the select committee, Fraser said. Cancelling cap-and-trade will leave $3 billion hole in budget: FAO Scrapping the former government’s cap-and-trade program will cost Ontario $3 billion over the next four years, warns the Financial Accountability Office (FAO). In a report tabled Tuesday, Financial Accountability Officer Peter Weltman estimated Ontario’s “budget balance will worsen by a total of $3 billion over fiscal years 2018-19 through 2021-22.” The FAO broke down the blow to the budget by year: $841 million in 2018-19, $615 million in 2019-20, $771 million in 2020-21, and $787 million in 2021-22. Weltman said the deterioration is the result of a loss in revenue from carbon auctions and the cost of winding down the program. The wind-down cost $600 million, while the government has promised $5 million in compensation to companies that purchased now- useless carbon allowances. Weltman said this will make it “more difficult” for the government to get out of the red. He also revealed that, contrary to what the government said in the summer, not all of the programs funded by cap-and-trade have been cancelled. Weltman estimated the cost of keeping the programs this year is $500 million. Copyright © 2018 Queen’s Park Today queensparktoday.ca 4 October 17, 2018 The FAO said he was not able to say which programs were still around because it’s shielded from the public under a cabinet exemption. The government would not say either. Environment Minister Rod Phillips took issue with the FAO’s assessment that creating a $3-billion hole in the budget would fall to taxpayers to foot the bill. “What he was clear about was that there were $3 billion less of revenue coming from taxpayers to the government of Ontario,” Phillips told reporters. “Obviously when you cut a tax — particularly a tax that’s not effective, as the cap-and- trade program was not — it’s going to reduce government revenues,” he went on to say. “We’d rather see that money in families pockets and that’s what we did.” He kept mum on what the government’s climate change plan will look like when it’s released this fall, but he said it won’t be a “punitive tax.” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli was equally tight-lipped on how the government will make up the loss, and told reporters to stay tuned for the fall economic statement, which is due out by November 15. Weltman also said cap-and-trade would have cost Ontarians less than the federal carbon backstop plan that is set to come into effect on January 1, 2019 — a plan the Ford administration will fight in court. NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said the FAO’s report will lead to cuts to public programs and “that means ripping $3 billion right out of folks’ bank accounts, or cutting $3 billion from things like health care.” “Doug Ford is hurting Ontario’s environment, and he’s charging all Ontarians extra to do it,” Tabuns said. On Twitter, federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna expressed her concerns over Ontario’s climate policy. “This shouldn’t be surprising. If you don’t have a plan to fight climate change, you don’t have a plan to grow the economy,” McKenna tweeted. Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner called the cap-and-trade cancellation a $3-billion “boondoggle” that shows the Ford administration is putting “politics and ideology over evidence.” “The FAO report reveals the real financial consequences of Ford’s ‘cut first; think later’ approach to governing.