"Right Now, We Have a Great Cabinet and a Great Caucus."

Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report June 23, 2020

Quotation of the day

"Right now, we have a great cabinet and a great caucus."

Pressed on rumours of an impending cabinet shuffle, Premier Doug Ford doesn't rule it out.

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The house reconvenes at 9 a.m. The government is expected to move the motion extending the state of emergency to July 15.

Bill 171, Building Transit Faster Act, could also be up for third-reading debate.

MPPs will sit tomorrow as well. After next week’s Canada Day constituency break, the house ramps up to three-day weeks.

In the park Families with loved ones in long-term care will rally against the possibility of civil liability protection for COVID-related lawsuits, which the Ford government is considering for people and organizations, including LTCs. Personal injury firm Diamond and Diamond, which has proposed class-actions against operators Revera and Sienna Senior Living, organized the demonstration.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath will hold a Zoom presser with the families this morning.

Everywhere but Windsor-Essex will be in Stage 2 on Wednesday After three months on lockdown, Toronto and Peel will taste more freedom on Wednesday as they join the rest of Ontario in Stage 2 of reopening. But not Windsor-Essex, which is being held back for at least another week as migrant farming operations have become cradles of coronavirus infections.

"We're winning the fight, but it's not over by any means," Premier Doug Ford said Monday.

That means restaurant patios, hair salons, swimming pools and (gloriously air-conditioned) indoor shopping malls can return in the 416 and the rest of the 905.

But COVID-19 is still a threat, and people and businesses should follow public health guidelines and emergency orders laying out safe conditions for Stage 2 (think: no singing on patios so as not to spread germs; no beard trims at the barber so you're not in each other's faces).

Ford chided weekend beachgoers in Toronto, saying stricter bylaw enforcement measures may be necessary to ensure folks aren't "clumped together."

"It looked like South Beach, Florida. And you've seen what happened down in Florida, there were 4,000 cases in one day the other day," Ford said of the city’s Woodbine and Cherry beaches. "Folks, I get it. You want to get out — hot day, there's a beach. We've got to maybe come up with better protocols."

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said their cities are ready to take the next step.

Toronto Mayor John Tory, who had hinted at Stage 2 over the weekend, also joined his fellow GTHA mayors, many of whom will be turning an eye to their annual budgets as early as this week, to again urge the higher levels of government to support struggling municipalities. (According to the mayors, "discussions are underway" between Ontario and Ottawa "to come to an agreement to meaningfully address the financial challenge municipalities are facing.")

Ford fires shot across the bow of farmers As for Windsor-Essex entering Stage 2, the premier said reopening is too risky right now. Ford had harsh words for farmers and implored them to send their migrant workers for testing, which isn't happening at a level he'd like.

Ford said it's "totally unfair" for the entire region to be stuck in Stage 1. "I feel sorry for them, I really do," he said, putting the onus on operators. "I'd break down a brick wall for farmers, they're the hardest working people I know, but this is not working out."

He reiterated "cooperation" from farmers and workers is key, and — in a similar vein to his warning "greedy" landlords about the law temporarily banning commercial evictions — cautioned farmers he would "pull out other tools" to get results. But he wasn't specific.

"I'll go to the extreme, whatever tool I have to protect the people of Windsor, and the food supply chain, and the farmers and the workers. I'll start pulling out every tool I have at my disposal to make sure this gets done."

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens called Monday's announcement "disappointing." According to Dilkens, 82 per cent of Essex county's cases are concentrated in Kingsville and Leamington (the self-proclaimed tomato capital of Canada), but he acknowledged they will "rise and fall as a region" when it comes to reopening.

Ford had rejected Dilkens' earlier plea for mandatory testing of migrant farm workers, but the mayor says the feds and province are working on a "coordinated strategy" with additional resources to help contain the virus. Details are expected "shortly."

The news comes the day after COVID-19 claimed the life of a third migrant worker in Ontario, and as Mexico reversed an earlier pause on sending workers to Canadian farms. (B.C., which successfully tamped down the spread among its migrant workforce by instituting provincially run quarantine sites for new arrivals, was not impacted.) There have been two deaths in Windsor-Essex and one in Norfolk County.

Today’s events

June 23 at 9 a.m. – Online The Financial Accountability Office will release a report on the pandemic's impact on regional labour markets.

June 23 at 9 a.m. – Online Culture Industries Minister Lisa MacLeod will be at the Zoom launch of Bubble Bloom, a new app with games to help kids cope with the pandemic, designed by Toronto-based Shaftesbury Technology.

June 23 around 1 p.m. – Toronto Premier Doug Ford is expected to hold his daily briefing at Queen's Park.

Topics of conversation

● Ontario continues to hit its stride, reporting fewer than 200 daily COVID-19 cases on eight out of the last nine days. Another 161 infections and three deaths were reported Monday, while testing punches above 20,000 and hospitalizations dip down. ○ Of the 161 new cases, 44 were from Peel and 36 from Toronto, which are headed for Stage 2 Wednesday. Thirty-two cases are from Windsor-Essex; all but one come from the agricultural industry.

● NDP MPP Gurratan Singh joined the family of Ejaz Choudry — a 62-year-old father of four who was shot dead by Peel police in Mississauga after his family called a non-emergency number for help — to call for a public inquiry. Choudry's nephew cited a lack of faith in the Special Investigations Unit, the province's arm's length police

oversight body, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of his uncle, who was reportedly suffering from a schizophrenic episode. ○ In a newly released policy paper, the NDP promised to overhaul Ontario's police oversight system by compelling officers to participate in investigations related to their conduct and allowing unpaid suspensions. As it stands, cops don't have to take part in SIU probes and local chiefs cannot suspend their officers without pay. ○ A Halton officer was recently suspended after a video surfaced appearing to show him shoving a youth to the ground. ○ The Opposition would also "demilitarize" police forces by diverting cash to improve community support, and "give elected representatives the support and power to determine how policing budgets are spent." ○ Premier Doug Ford maintained his confidence in police oversight as tension bubbles between the public and law enforcement. Ford promised to consult local chiefs on potentially empowering them to suspend officers without pay. For now, he's confident the SIU can do its job. ○ "No matter what happened … this is a terrible situation," the premier said. "But let's see what the report says, because I just don't believe in pointing fingers at any group, any organization, until we get the details." ○ PC MPP Deepak Anand was spotted at the Choudry family's protest yesterday.

● Ontario’s non-profit sector has joined the push for liability protection from COVID-19 lawsuits. The Ontario Nonprofit Network says many of its 58,000 member organizations are struggling to access insurance coverage amid the pandemic and is calling on Attorney General Doug Downey to consider a “good samaritan” liability exclusion clause, to exempt non-profits from requiring insurance or to backstop their premiums so organizations such as mental-health providers or social services agencies aren’t forced to close their doors.

Appointments and employments Ex-deputy minister to take over troubled Peel school board ● Ontario has named a former deputy minister of education, Bruce Rodrigues, as supervisor at the Peel District School Board, where concerns about dysfunction, discrimination and anti-Black racism in particular are rampant. Rodrigues also did stints leading the Toronto Catholic District School Board and EQAO. ○ Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Rodrigues's appointment will allow the board "to get back on track and undertake the necessary actions to eliminate the practices and policies underpinning discrimination and inequities." ○ "For a generation, students have felt ignored, powerless, and disrespected. This ends starting today," the minister added. ○ Peel's board asked the ministry to send in a supervisor last week, and Lecce has been hinting at stronger intervention as the board struggled to make changes

following two damning reports. The reports found cases of systemic racism at schools and that the board failed to address them.

● Rodrigues already has his first marching orders. Lecce asked him to get Peel to "immediately withdraw" from legal action against pro-Black Twitter accounts that have been posting about rumoured instances of racism at schools. "We cannot silence community. In fact, we need more community in these moments," Lecce tweeted.

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

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