March 25, 2019
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Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report March 25, 2019 Quotation of the day “It’s like the cheese slipped off the cracker with these guys and they just went far-left.” Premier Doug Ford insists he gets along with reporters one-on-one but says he prefers to sidestep mainstream media using social media. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The House sits at 10:30 a.m. A vote on Bill 81, Supply Act, is expected after question period. The procedural bill, which authorizes the public service’s annual expenditures, got a quick stint at second reading Thursday; the vote was scheduled after one hour. The government could then call any of the following pieces of legislation in the afternoon: ● Bill 68, Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act; ● Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act; or ● Bill 48, Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act. NDP Deputy Leader Sara Singh plans to move a unanimous consent motion to require a list of witnesses with knowledge of Ron Taverner’s hiring process to testify before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy. Committees this week The Standing Committee on Government Agencies convenes Tuesday to consider future appointments of Quinto Annibale to the LCBO board, and Terry Steven deBoer to the Durham police services board. On Wednesday the public accounts committee will hold a closed-session meeting to draft reports on real estate and cancer treatment services. The justice policy committee meets Thursday to deal with Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers’ request to PC chair Parm Gill to look into the circumstances surrounding former deputy OPP commissioner Brad Blair’s firing. In the park The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Medical Laboratory Professionals' Association of Ontario and Intact Insurance Corp are slated to hold lobby days and evening receptions at the legislature. Ford calls media far-left, social media a way to circumvent journalists Premier Doug Ford isn’t sweating the mainstream media, saying he prefers to get out his message through social media. “I get along with them one-on-one, I really do,” Ford said of reporters to a conservative-minded crowd at the Manning Centre conference in Ottawa Saturday. “But it’s like the cheese slipped off the cracker with these guys and they just went far-left.” “They want to take what you said and flip and chop and twist it around, but we went directly to the people,” Ford went on to say. He pointed to Ontario News Now, the propaganda TV-news-style online video channel run by PC Caucus Services Bureau, as his government’s way of getting around journalists he doesn’t seem to like speaking with. “Now there’s social media so we’re circumventing the media through our social media and we have ONN — Ontario News Now,” Ford said. The premier has not been shy about his apparent disdain for so-called mainstream media. He has previously referred to journalists as the official Opposition. Today’s events March 25 at 9 a.m. – Toronto The Ontario Federation of Labour is holding a “Take Back Ontario” conference at the Metro Convention Centre, featuring keynote speeches from heavyweights in organized labour as well as NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. March 25 at 9:30 a.m. – Toronto NDP education critic Marit Stiles will be in the Queen’s Park media studio to preview her forthcoming private member’s bill geared toward improving cyclists’ safety. March 25 at 10 a.m. – Toronto Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory will meet in the premier’s office. Topics of conversation ● Tories in Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston want to meet with Premier Doug Ford in the hopes he’ll reinstate expelled PC, now-Independent MPP Randy Hillier. According to the CBC, the riding association’s more than 900 members and executive are feeling alienated and “insulted” over the decision to permanently boot their longtime and outspoken representative from the PC fold. ○ The riding association and its counsel believe the party’s constitution only allows the association discretion to remove their MPP from the party, so his ouster could be considered a legal breach of contract. ● A CTV report suggests parents of children with autism are being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements before they can get a meeting with their MPPs to discuss the PC’s controversial autism treatment funding changes. ● Deputy Premier and Health Minister Christine Elliott tamped down Premier Ford’s boast about high-ranking health-care executives losing their jobs under the PC’s plan to merge provincial health agencies into the Ontario Health super-agency. In an interview with NewsTalk, Elliott said it is “premature” to say all the people in management roles will be gone, suggesting some will be retained under the new system. ○ Ford also told Newstalk “no one is losing their jobs from the TTC” in an effort to ease fears about potential job losses as the province uploads the subway system. ● Democracy Watch says Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake’s investigation that cleared Premier Doug Ford of any conflict of interest in the now-defunct appointment of his friend Ron Taverner as OPP commissioner falls short. Duff Conacher, co-founder of the national advocacy organization, called the report “one of the most negligently bad reports by a Canadian ethics commissioner that [he’s] seen in the past 25 years,” because it ignores the fact Taverner was offered a patronage job. Conacher says he’s consulting lawyers regarding a possible court challenge to Wake’s ruling. The Toronto Star has the details. ● Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Harvey Bischof is warning the province could see labour disruptions by teachers next fall, should the Ford administration push forward with its plan to increase the average high school classroom size from 22 to 28. (Bischof says the plan will slash the number of high school teachers per school from an average of 46 to 35 and that up to 5,700 teaching jobs could be eliminated.) ○ Premier Ford shot back Friday, saying teachers’ union heads should “think twice” before encouraging labour action. ○ The Toronto Star dug into what the government’s mandatory e-learning plan could look like — it is the first in North America. ● Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath told a crowd of NDP partisans “we’ve gone from bad to worse” after the Ford-led Tories took office last June, bringing to an end 15 years of Liberal rule. Speaking at the party’s provincial council meeting in Toronto Saturday, Horwath reiterated her party’s vision for the province and vowed to fight Ford’s agenda, which she said has been nine months of “a backroom government … that plays the politics of falsehoods, fear and hate, that sows division for their own narrow interests, and tries to bully or silence anyone who speaks up.” ○ “Frankly, Doug Ford likes to make stuff up. He likes to engage in personal attacks. He is obsessed with revenge plots against his political enemies. And his vision for Ontario is nothing — nothing — like ours,” Horwath said. ○ She even borrowed a Ford phrase, repeatedly referring to her audience as “friends.” ○ Ford has claimed the NDP violated election law by not publicly posting an up to $800-a-ticket Saturday night fundraiser event to mark Horwath’s 10 years at the helm of her party, and threatened to call in the OPP to investigate. The NDP appear to have followed the rules based on screen grabs provided to reporters. ● NDP MPP Joel Harden has apologized for remarks he made in the legislature during a debate on eliminating racism suggesting Abdirahman Abdi’s death was racially motivated, the Ottawa Citizen reports. The Ottawa Police Association blasted Harden’s comments as a “disgusting display of contempt” for the judicial process. Harden wrote to Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau this weekend explaining his speech was about “breaking down systemic racism where it exists.” ○ Ottawa police constable Daniel Montsion is currently on trial and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon charges in Abdi’s death. ○ Premier Ford and the Tories have taken to calling the NDP police haters over their past remarks. ● Last week marked the anniversary of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s death. His brother Premier Doug Ford tweeted that he misses his brother everyday and tries to follow his footsteps when it comes to returning constituents calls and respecting taxpayers’ money. Funding announcements ● Premier Doug Ford and Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek were at an OC Transpo yard in Ottawa Friday to formally commit $1.2 billion in funding for the second stage of the city’s multi-billion dollar LRT project. ○ The LRT cash was previously pledged by the formal Liberal government; Ford promised to keep it on the books during last spring’s election campaign. News releases - governmental Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines ● The Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation and private real estate entity SIS Group are getting $5 million from the provincial government to help make the former St. Marys Paper Mill site a tourist attraction, according to a news release. ○ The vision for the land includes a new Agawa Canyon Tour train station, an exhibit gallery, a microbrewery and an outdoor event centre, the government says. Ministry of Health and Long-term Care ● Ontario’s health minister on Friday announced 16 additional long-term care projects that will add 1,157 new beds in facilities across the province, according to a release. ○ The announcement is part of the Tories pledge to add 15,000 long-term care beds in five years. Oops! Friday’s issue of Queen’s Park Today erroneously quoted Energy Minister Greg Rickford saying Ontarians deserve to know the “trust cost” of their hydro bills — but he really said “true cost.” Queen's Park Today is written by Sabrina Nanji, reporting from the Queen's Park press gallery.