April 1, 2019

Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report April 1, 2019

Quotation of the day

“A new low in self-serving electioneering.”

NDP MPP Catherine Fife denounces the Tories’ potential licence plate rebrand.

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The House convenes at 10:30 a.m. for question period. The government could call any of the following pieces of legislation for afternoon debate:

● Bill 87, Fixing the Hydro Mess Act; ● Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act; or ● Bill 48, Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act.

Committees this week Carmine Nigro, of real estate firm Craft Development, has been picked to chair the LCBO board and will be interviewed Tuesday by the government agencies committee. The committee will also consider Judith Ann Clapperton’s planned appointment to the Midland Police Services Board.

The social policy committee convenes Monday and Tuesday for public hearings on Bill 74, People’s Health Care Act. Representatives from home care, nursing, addictions and mental health and physicians groups are on the witness roster. According to the CBC, more than 1,400 people wanted to speak to the big health-care shakeup proposal, but with only two days of hearings just 30 of them will get to testify. (Written submissions may be submitted to the committee clerk.)

On Wednesday, the legislative assembly committee will meet to review the legislature’s TV broadcast system, then goes in camera to discuss a draft report on members’ use of technology in the House.

PC MPP Mike Harris Jr. sparked the technology review, saying MPPs should be able to read statements and debate from their laptops, cellphones and other devices in the chamber. It seems Harris Jr. didn’t fall far from the tree — when in opposition, his dad and former premier Mike Harris asked the Speaker if he could use a phone during question period to call into a radio program then-premier Bob Rae was appearing on, but was shot down. As it stands, there are only ad hoc rules for technology use in the House.

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts will get a closed-session briefing from the auditor general Wednesday on the public accounts, then opens its doors to hear from top bureaucrats.

In the park Happy birthday to the Pink Palace, opened 126 years ago this week on April 4, 1893.

Colleges Ontario and Diabetes Canada are scheduled to hold their lobby days and evening receptions today.

Tories mull changes to ‘Yours to Discover’ licence plate motto Ontario drivers may soon be displaying the Ford government’s “Open for Business” tagline on their licence plates.

On Friday, several news outlets reported the government was considering leaving behind “Yours to Discover,” the provincial slogan that’s been stamped on licence plates since 1982.

Queen’s Park Today also obtained a draft document from the government and consumer services office to cabinet on the “rollout of a new design and slogan for Ontario licence plates.”

“This initiative will see us refresh a licence plate design that’s been relatively unchanged since the 1960s and — depending on the slogan chosen — help to rebrand Ontario as a business-friendly province,” it reads.

The document says the ministries of government and consumer services, transportation and community safety are working in tandem “as we all have an operational stake in the licence plate program.” All provincial plates are made in jails, mainly at Central East in Lindsay.

A source confirmed to QPT the government wants to change the slogan to “Open for Business,” something it is already spending over $100,000 to emblazon on 25 signs at border crossings.

However, the premier’s spokesperson Simon Jefferies said the government is only considering the change for commercial vehicles.

“While no decision has been made, Open for Business is a slogan that the government is considering for commercial vehicles only,” Jefferies said in an email.

It’s unclear if passenger vehicles will get another new motto.

The opposition called the potential change “a new low in self-serving electioneering.”

“Our licence plates should be a symbol of what Ontario has to offer — including our stunning natural environment — not a billboard for a petty premier that puts partisan interests above people,” NDP MPP Catherine Fife said in a statement.

Ontario stops funding three overdose prevention sites Ontario quietly approved 15 consumption and treatment services sites under its revamped model late Friday afternoon, leaving other existing sites in limbo.

Last fall, the government rebranded supervised injection and overdose prevention sites and introduced a new approvals process for a maximum of 21 sites. (At the time, 18 were in operation while three others that had already been approved were put on pause.)

Of the newly approved sites, six are in Toronto, three in Ottawa, and one each are in London, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, St. Catharines and Thunder Bay. At least three are pending review, while three (two in Toronto and one in Ottawa) that weren’t provincially approved for funding will stay open for now as they were already federally approved to operate.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said Friday the government will continue to accept applications from interested organizations for additional sites.

“Our government takes the opioids crisis very seriously,” she said in a news release, adding the new model “will continue to save lives by preventing overdoses and connecting people to primary care, treatment, rehabilitation, and other health and social services to ensure those struggling with drug addiction get the help they need.”

Harm-reduction advocates say the cuts would be an “absolute disaster.”

Gillian Kolla of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society said the Tories made “a callous and unethical move to close lifesaving services.”

Toronto Mayor John Tory said he was “deeply troubled” by the surprise announcement.

“This announcement that leaves Toronto Public Health's Victoria Street site in limbo and appears to close two other sites in the city is extremely disturbing, particularly because it came with no advanced warning or communication from the province,” Tory said in a statement.

Today’s events

April 1 at 10 a.m. – Toronto Toronto councillor and board of health chair Joe Cressy and medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa will hold a news conference at City Hall about provincial cuts to supervised injection and overdose prevention services.

April 1 at 10:30 a.m. – Etobicoke Premier Doug Ford will make an announcement alongside his environment, transportation and infrastructure ministers at the Thorncrest Ford dealership.

April 1 at 2 p.m. – Toronto Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers will talk about her forthcoming private member’s bill in the media studio to establish a selection committee to appoint the OPP commissioner, akin to the way judges are selected. Des Rosiers’ bill follows the integrity watchdog’s Taverner report, which recommended MPPs design an independent, transparent recruitment rubric. She plans to table the bill Monday afternoon.

Topics of conversation

● Premier Doug Ford vowed to fight “tooth and nail” to protect auto workers in Windsor, after Fiat Chrysler (FCA Canada Inc.) announced an end to its third daily shift, which would cut about 1,500 jobs starting September 30. ○ In a statement last week, Ford said he spoke with FCA Canada president Reid Bigland and Unifor president Jerry Dias to shore up the job protection front. He also managed to get in a dig at the previous Grit rulers. “My message to Fiat Chrysler is this: do not make this decision based on the anti-business policies of the former government over the past 15 years,” the premier said. ○ NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also expressed solidarity with auto workers. “The province can and must step up, step in, and find out right away how the government can stem or stop the job losses, and ensure workers land on their feet,” she said in a statement.

● Meanwhile, at Toyota’s Cambridge plant to see a new vehicle roll off the production line Friday, Ford advised automakers to “read and react” to the market. ● He also took reporters’ questions on the Randy Hillier drama and expanded beer and wine sales. ○ Ford shrugged off Hillier’s allegation that Ford’s chief of staff Dean French has unprecedented control in caucus and cabinet meetings, but didn’t deny the specifics. He said French is a “critical” part of the Tories’ “a close knit team.” ○ As for a potential $100 million in penalties for scrapping Ontario’s 10-year contract with the Beer Store as the Ford government expands booze sales to corner, big-box and more grocery stores, the premier was again unfazed. A kill

fee is “not necessarily the case,” Ford said before suggesting any potential penalty would be worth it as “it’s about time Ontario gets with the program.” ○ In a pre-budget speech last week Finance Minister Vic Fedeli intimated the government would make good on its expanded alcohol sales campaign pledge in the coming weeks, possibly in the April 11 budget. “It’s about convenience,” the premier added.

● Ten of the province’s first 25 retail pot shops have been authorized to open (as of Sunday evening), according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Thus far, three retailers have been given the green light to open in Ottawa, two in Kingston, and one each in Toronto, St. Catharines, Burlington, Brampton and London.

● Four Lindsay-area recipients of the cancelled basic income experiment have officially launched a proposed class-action lawsuit, claiming the Tories breached contract when they scrapped the three-year pilot, according to a statement of claim filed Thursday. The Canadian Press has the story. ○ Basic income pilot recipients received their final payments last week; ex-premier Kathleen Wynne will be in Hamilton today to hear from participants about the impact of her government’s now-dead experiment. ○ Ontario’s Superior Court turned down the recipients’ earlier bid to overturn the PC’s decision in February.

● On the eve of federal carbon tax day, Ontario Tories were filling up their gas tanks and sharing rote responses on social media. The Twitter blitz may herald a multi-million dollar ad campaign, complete with TV and radio spots, according to the Toronto Star. ○ Green Leader Mike Schreiner hit back in kind, posting a Twitter clip of him plugging in his electric vehicle and saying it’s time the Ford government “stop sabotaging climate solutions.” ○ Ottawa’s carbon levy kicks in today in Ontario and three other provinces sans federally-approved carbon-pricing programs. Ontario’s reference case challenge is set to be heard April 15 to 18.

● Finance Minister Vic Fedeli rang in Ontario’s fiscal new year by re-upping a call for Ottawa to make the equalization transfer program more equal, the Toronto Sun reports. For the first time in a decade Ontario starts the 2019-20 fiscal year today as a “have not” province and ineligible for federal equalization payments. Fedeli said Ontario will give Ottawa $12.9 billion more in tax revenues than it gets from federal program spending, and he wants to make sure the formula is fair and transparent across the country.

● Mark Towhey is set to become the new editor-in-chief at Sun News, the Postmedia-owned tabloid chain that publishes its Sun papers in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg. Towhey — who worked as late Toronto mayor Rob

Ford’s chief of staff and later co-authored a bombshell book about it — tweeted Friday he was “very happy” about starting his new job on April 8. ○ Towhey also helped with former PC leader Patrick Brown’s 2015 leadership bid. ○ While Towhey doesn’t have newspaper experience, he is no stranger to media — he hosts a Newstalk1010 weekend show, which will continue. ○ Premier Doug Ford recently hired Towhey’s predecessor James Wallace, who was VP of editorial at the Sun papers, as deputy chief of staff and policy. ○ Towhey joins Adrienne Batra, the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Sun, as the second former Rob Ford staffer in a senior role at the Sun papers. ○ Speaking of conservative comebacks, ex-PC media manager Alan Sakach returned to Queen’s Park recently to take on the research director role at the caucus services bureau.

● Ontario’s ex-Liberal finance minister with a booming voice, Charles Sousa, may be singing looser fundraising rules’ praises at a karaoke fundraiser in Toronto later this month. Regular tickets go for $150.

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

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