Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report September 16, 2019

Quotation of the day

“Yusra was a bright light. She was confident, held her own and had a very promising future. She will be missed.”

Premier offers condolences after Queen’s Park press gallery intern and Ryerson ​ ​ ​ University journalism student Yusra Javed passed away on Friday. ​ ​ ​

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The House is in extended summer recess until Monday, October 28.

Brad Blair launches $15M wrongful dismissal lawsuit, calls for public inquiry into political appointments Brad Blair, the former deputy OPP commissioner who launched legal action against the Ford ​ government over controversial hiring practices, spoke out publicly for the first time Friday to call for a public inquiry and announce a $15-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

“I lost my father at the age of 21 to cancer. And if you ever lost a parent, you’ll know the incredible amount of sadness and loss that you feel,” Blair said at an emotional press conference with his wife Danielle and counsel Julian Falconer at Queen’s Park. “That’s how I ​ ​ ​ ​ would compare it. That’s what it feels like to me. The OPP was my family.”

Blair was fired in March after publicly criticizing the Ford government’s hiring of Ron Taverner ​ as OPP commissioner. Blair had previously launched a $5-million defamation suit against the premier and a wrongful dismissal grievance, and took the Ontario Ombudsman to court in an attempt to force his office to investigate the hiring of Ford’s close personal friend as Ontario’s top cop.

Blair says his firing was “unlawful” and done “without any due process.”

He’s now calling for a public inquiry into allegations of “corrupt” political appointments that have rocked the Ford government this summer.

“I believe that I was duty-bound as commissioner to come forward. I believed at the time coming forward that the OPP commissioner’s process was the entire iceberg in terms of cronyism, but as the months passed and the numerous examples of further cronyism were identified, it became evident that the commissioner’s process was the tip of the iceberg,” he told reporters Friday.

Blair’s lawsuit alleges Premier Doug Ford and his former chief of staff Dean French violated his ​ ​ ​ ​ charter rights and abused the public office.

Ford’s spokesperson Ivana Yelich declined to comment because the case is before the courts. ​ ​

“As the Premier has said before, his concern is and always has been protecting and supporting the front-line officers who put their lives on the line every single day to protect our communities,” she said in an email statement.

None of the allegations mentioned in this story have been tested in court.

Ontario’s deficit for 2018-19 is $7.4B, far lower than $15B originally claimed by PCs Ontario’s budget deficit is now $7.4 billion, almost half of the $15 billion the Ford government claimed it inherited from the previous Liberal government a year ago.

Treasury Board President and Finance Minister Rod Phillips released the ​ ​ ​ ​ financial update along with the province’s public accounts for fiscal 2018-19 on Friday, chalking up the lower figure to higher-than-expected tax revenues and $2.4 billion less in spending than was previously projected.

The PC’s spring budget projected the year’s deficit to be $11.7 billion; the previous Liberal government’s pre-2018 election budget pegged the deficit at $6.7 billion. Shortly after coming to power in June, the Ford government claimed the $15-billion figure, with about a $5 billion discrepancy over the accounting of certain pension assets and Liberal-era hydro plan financing.

Critics accused the Tories of inflating the deficit to justify cuts to government program spending.

Liberal John Fraser accused the PCs of being too pessimistic in forecasting ​ ​ revenues.

“By inflating the deficit, the Ford government created the context to cut $2.3 billion to services that families depend on like public health, education, childcare, mental health and addictions services, among the many,” Fraser said in a statement.

Green Leader said “the Premier has overstated the deficit over the last year in ​ ​ order to pursue an ideological agenda of government cuts.”

Today’s events

September 16 at 9:30 a.m. — North Bay ​ Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark and Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli will ​ ​ ​ ​ make an announcement at the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre.

September 16 at 11:30 a.m. — North Bay ​ Health Minister , Associate Mental Health and Addictions Minister Michael ​ ​ ​ Tibollo, Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli and PC MPP will ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ make an announcement at the North Bay Recovery Home.

Upcoming events

September 17 to 21 — Verner ​ Ontario’s politicians will take to the furrows this week in Verner, in the West Nippissing area, for the annual International Plowing Match and Rural Expo. ● Premier Doug Ford will participate in the event’s big parade on Tuesday morning, ​ ​ deliver opening remarks at noon, and put his tractor skills to the test during the politicians’ plowing competition at 2 p.m. ● It’s the second time the major rural event is being held in .

September 19 — Orléans ​ The federal nomination meeting for Orléans will be held on Thursday, potentially sparking another provincial byelection in the nation’s capital. ● Marie-France Lalonde, who currently represents the riding at Queen’s Park, will battle it ​ out with Khatera Akbari, an accountant and president of the federal constituency ​ ​ association, to be the federal Liberal candidate for the October 21 vote. If she wins the nomination, Lalonde would have to resign her seat at Queen’s Park and Premier Doug ​ Ford would have to call a byelection within six months of the Speaker alerting Elections ​ Ontario about the vacancy. ● The federal seat was put into play when Liberal MP Andrew Leslie, who wrested the ​ ​ riding from the Conservatives in 2015, said earlier this year he wouldn’t seek reelection. ● The premier has until February 2 to call a byelection in nearby Ottawa—Vanier, to replace retired MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers. The Grits recently nominated Lucille ​ ​ ​ Collard, a federal government lawyer and longtime French public school trustee, to run ​ in the riding they’ve held since the 1970s.

September 20 — Ohio ​

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney are heading to Ohio and will ​ ​ ​ ​ meet with State Governor Mike DeWine. Details are expected from Ford’s office today. ​ ​

Topics of conversation

● Doug Ford filmed with Ontario News Now, the PC government’s taxpayer-funded, ​ quasi-partisan promotional arm, on one-third of the days of his first year of premiership. The Canadian Press has done the public service of analyzing a year’s worth of ONN ​ ​ ​ clips to show Ford took time out of his work days to film on at least 100 occasions during ​ his first year in power. ○ Ford’s office noted he usually spends less than five minutes at a time filming with the ONN crew and defended the use of time as “a creative way to communicate the government’s message in the modern, digital world.”

● An Ontario judge has ordered a temporary halt to the government’s retail pot licensing ​ ​ process until a judicial review can be heard on September 25. Eleven would-be retailers who were disqualified after winning the second retail licence lottery for not submitting paperwork on time launched a legal challenge over that decision last week. ○ Counsel for the 11 disqualified winners argues the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario failed to properly notify them, pointing out that the original emails the AGCO sent winners congratulating them bounced back.

● There’s more weed woes for Ontario: the province’s Crown cannabis retail corporation lost $42 million in the latest fiscal year, according to CP. ​ ​ ​

● Alykhan Velshi, longtime Tory operative and former chief staffer to then-PC leader ​ Patrick Brown, helped Ontario Proud land its first big cheque, from prominent ​ Conservative donor Robert Faissal. The Globe and Mail has the scoop. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

● Transportation Minister was among the who’s who of politicians on ​ ​ ​ ​ hand to cut the ribbon at the long-awaited Ottawa LRT Confederation Line launch on Saturday. The province contributed $600 million to the line under the Liberals; since entering office Premier Doug Ford has promised another $1.2 billion for the second ​ ​ stage of the project, which is already in the works.

● Sport Minister Lisa MacLeod and Mississauga-area PC MPPs attended the ​ ​ ​ ​ #ShetheNorth rally celebrating local tennis star Bianca Andreescu’s U.S. Open win on ​ ​ Sunday. MacLeod reportedly got booed by the crowd — as did Prime Minister Justin ​ ​ ​ Trudeau. ​

● An Ontario family is packing up and moving to Newfoundland after learning it will take more than 18 months for their three-year-old son to to get on the government’s waitlist for autism treatment, the Sarnia Observer reports. ​ ​ ​ ​ ○ The family reached out to PC MPP ’s office but were “left with piles of ​ ​ paperwork” and a “thin promise” to get on a waitlist sometime over the next two years, when their son, diagnosed in June, will be turning five.

● Former Liberal MPP Han Dong will fly the federal Grit banner in the October 21 election ​ ​ in Don Valley North after winning the nomination on Thursday. ​ ​ ○ The party had red lit Laura Huang’s bid to replace her husband, MP Geng Tan, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ who said he wouldn’t seek reelection amid media reports about allegations he had hired his former girlfriend Ying Yu as a constituency assistant and then fired ​ ​ her when his wife found out. Yu then sought child support for a two-year-old child; Tan says he donated sperm to Yu under an agreement that he would not support the child.

Oops! Friday’s issue of Queen’s Park Today erroneously referred to Vic Fedeli as finance minister. In ​ ​ ​ ​ fact, Fedeli was demoted to the Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade portfolio in June; Rod Phillips is now the finance minister. ​ ​

Queen's Park Today is written by Sabrina Nanji, reporting from the Queen's Park press gallery.

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