Kathleen Wynne prorogues legislature for throne speech Monday
Premier Kathleen Wynne is proroguing the legislature to give her Liberals a mid-mandate reboot with a throne speech next Monday.

TheStar.com
Sept. 8, 2016
Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson

Premier Kathleen Wynne is giving her Liberals a mid-mandate reboot with a Monday throne speech aimed at “everyday” concerns like high electricity bills after a steamy summer.

Wynne, who prorogued the Legislature on Thursday, will outline the government’s agenda for the 20 months leading up to the spring 2018 election in an address to be read by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

“I’m looking forward to Monday and the throne speech,” a beaming Wynne said as she returned to her office with Secretary of Cabinet Steve Orsini, the head of the Ontario public service, after meeting with Dowdeswell.

The speech will focus on “making the everyday lives of Ontarians better,” Government House leader Yasir Naqvi later told a news conference

“We know Ontarians have concerns about things like hydro prices, concerns about cost and everyday living,” he added, saying all government legislation — including the political fundraising reform bill triggered by a Star series — will be reintroduced, in some cases with amendments.

That means the prohibition on MPPs and candidates attending campaign fundraisers, and the ban on union and corporate donations to political parties will almost certainly take effect in January.

Wynne signalled pocketbook issues are top of mind after last week’s byelection loss of former Liberal stronghold Scarborough-Rouge River to the Progressive Conservatives, who scoffed at her sudden attention to them.

“Apparently Premier Wynne only just learned that Ontario families are struggling to afford their hydro bills,” PC Leader Patrick Brown — who was not available to take questions — said in a statement calling the Liberals “old, tired and self-interested.”

“If she were serious about addressing this crisis, the Wynne Liberal government would immediately halt any further sales of Hydro One shares and stop signing expensive contracts for energy we don’t need.”

NDP House leader Gilles Bisson accused Wynne, whose party trailed the Conservatives in a recent public opinion poll, of “just using prorogation to change the channel on her failed record.”

“Ontarians will not be fooled by another Liberal public relations exercise. They want to see real action on their priorities,” said Bisson, who also called for a halt to the ongoing sale of the Hydro One transmission utility.

Naqvi defended the decision to prorogue as part of “normal tradition” to outline new priorities and stressed that MPPs are returning to the legislature as scheduled.

He said the government is “very much open” to carry forward private member’s bills introduced by opposition MPPs in the previous session of the legislature.

Under the political fundraising reforms, annual donation limits will be cut to $1,200 — down from the existing $9,975 — and other loopholes will be closed.

To offset the loss of revenue to parties, there will be a $2.71-per vote subsidy, which is based on the results of the 2014 election.

That payout is expected to increase to help riding associations.

With a $2.71-per-vote stipend:

• The Liberals, with 1,863,974 votes in 2014, would receive $5.06 million annually starting in January.
• The Progressive Conservatives, with 1,508,811 votes, would get $4.09 million.
• The New Democrats, with 1,144,822 votes, would get $3.1 million.
• The Green Party of Ontario, with 232,536 votes, would get $630,000.

But there is more to the throne speech than a reiteration of reforming campaign finance.

That includes a commitment to the Liberals’ plan to implement a carbon-pricing scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change — a measure expected to cost the average household $13 extra a month — and a continued focus on jobs and the economy.

“Our plan is working but our work is far from done,” Naqvi said, citing major investments in public transit like the Eglinton Crosstown light rail line slated to open in 2021 and Wynne’s successful push for an enhanced Canada Pension Plan.

The Star first disclosed the prorogation when government staffers were spotted examining the legislative chamber this week for a seating plan of dignitaries invited to attend Monday’s noon speech.

Wynne, who became premier in February 2013, acknowledged Wednesday that electricity bills are alarming ratepayers across the province.

“We heard concerns at the doors in Scarborough-Rouge River and, quite frankly, those concerns are things that we now have to take to heart and we have to use them to inform our actions going forward,” said the premier, who toured northern Ontario earlier this summer.

“One of the things that we heard most consistently was hydro rates . . . . It is not something that is isolated in one riding in Toronto.”

Wynne has ordered new Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault to look for “ways to help people bear the costs in their day-to-day lives.”

While prorogation is a standard practice in parliamentary government, its use has become controversial in recent years.

In October 2012, Wynne’s predecessor, premier Dalton McGuinty, announced he was proroguing the legislature and resigning as Liberal leader just one year after being re-elected with a minority government.

The opposition parties charged McGuinty was suspending the House and quitting to lessen the political fallout of his decision to cancel two locally unpopular gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election, which the auditor general estimates could cost up to $1 billion over 20 years.

In December 2008, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued the Commons for his minority Conservative government to avoid a non-confidence vote that would have led to its defeat.

Wynne’s Liberals argue that her move is different from what McGuinty and Harper did because the legislature will resume Monday as planned, unlike the eight-week gap set in motion by Harper in 2008. McGuinty’s move to prorogue suspended the House for four months.