Doug Ford will recall legislature to end York strike, cut gas prices

Thestar.com
June 13, 2018
Robert Benzie

Premier-designate Doug Ford will recall the legislature next month for a brief summer session to end the York University strike and begin fulfilling campaign promises like lowering gasoline prices, sources told the Star.

“We’re going to move forward relatively quickly. I’ll be back to you on that in the next few days,” Ford told reporters Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

The Progressive Conservative leader, whose party dethroned Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in last Thursday’s election, will officially take over on June 29.

That’s when the new premier and his cabinet will be sworn in.

“We want to make sure we get this transition done and talk to the rest of our team, talk to our caucus members, but we want to move relatively quickly on a lot of items that are urgent,” said Ford.

Sources said a top priority is ending the four-month strike by 3,000 York University contract faculty and teaching assistants, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Prior to the election, Wynne’s Liberals -- with backing from the Tories -- tried to get unanimous consent in the House to introduce back-to-work legislation, but Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats refused.

Should an end to the strike be negotiated before July, averting the need for days of procedural debate in the legislature, Ford still wants to implement his planned 10-cents-per-litre reduction in gas prices.

He is hoping to achieve that by cutting the provincial excise tax and scrapping Ontario’s cap-and-trade program with Quebec and California.

While withdrawing from the climate change pact could take 18 months, Tories believe the taxes can be cut before Ontario exits the greenhouse-gas reduction program.

The premier-designate also wants to move forward with changes at Hydro One, including parting ways with the transmission utility’s highly paid CEO Mayo Schmidt, derided during the campaign as “the $6-million man.”

Even an expedited legislative session will require a speech from the throne outlining the new government’s agenda.

As well, it will necessitate the election of a speaker to referee the proceedings in the legislature.

Tory MPPs Ted Arnott and Rick Nicholls are frontrunners to be the new speaker, who is elected by MPPs using a secret ballot.

Ford, who met with journalists after meeting with auto and steel industry officials to discuss NAFTA negotiations, has indicated he wants to hit the ground running.

He will gather his victorious 76-member caucus at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.

Insiders say his new cabinet will be smaller than that of Wynne, who had 28 members overseeing 30 departments.

The Conservatives, who have promised to find spending “efficiencies” of 4 per cent, are expected to streamline the various provincial ministries.

But Ford has repeatedly emphasized that “not one job” will be cut as he curbs expenditures.

On Thursday afternoon, he will meet at Queen’s Park with federal Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton on NAFTA.

The incoming premier said he stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the prime minister on the trade talks and chided American officials for resorting to “name-calling” against Justin Trudeau.