Queen's Park gears up for summer session
Politics at Queen’s Park will heat up Wednesday as the Premier Kathleen Wynne Liberals flexes its majority government muscle.

Thestar.com
July 1, 2014
By Richard J. Brennan

Like the temperature outside, politics at Queen’s Park will heat up Wednesday as Premier Kathleen Wynne’s majority government flexes its muscles for the first time since the June 12 election.

Wynne, who won 58 seats to 28 for the Conservatives and 21 for the New Democrats, promised to return the legislature for a special summer session not seen for years.

The first order of legislative business will be to swear in the new members and pick a speaker from a list that includes former speaker Liberal MPP Dave Levac, Liberal MPP Shafiq Qaadri, NDP MPPs Paul Miller and Cheri DiNovo and Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls.

And on Thursday Ontarians will get a sense of where the new Liberal government is heading when the speech from the throne, read by Lieutenant-Governor David Onley, is introduced. The throne speech will map out the government’s priorities on things such as a provincial pension plan and in turn sets the stage for the budget on July 14.

“Our big priority is to table the budget...the premier was very clear that that is long-term plan for the prosperity of Ontario,” Liberal House leader Yasir Naqvi told the Star.

Naqvi emphasized the budget is the platform that Liberals campaigned on and “that’s the platform that Ontarians elected a Liberal majority government on.”

The Grits have already said the budget will be exactly the same May 1 document that triggered the election campaign. Among other things, that budget called for $29 billion over the next decade for transit and transportation infrastructure in Ontario and a $2.5 billion Jobs and Prosperity Fund.

The Liberals have committed to re-introducing all 28 bills that died when the election was called May 2, which includes the Fair Minimum Wage Act, the Invasive Species Act, the Child Care Modernization Act, a bill to ban paid blood donations, and the Accountability Act.

In the wake of a sound electoral thrashing, the Progressive Conservatives are already planning to replace leader Tim Hudak, who officially steps down Wednesday. First out of chute with her leadership campaign was Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott, who finished third in the 2009 leadership race.

Vying to become the interim leader during the leadership campaign are Tory veteran MPPs John Yakabuski and Jim Wilson.

Despite winning as many seats as the party had before the election, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath didn’t exactly emerge unscathed as some critics have since called for her resignation. Her future will be in the party’s hands with an automatic leadership review at a party convention in November.

Meanwhile Tuesday marked the day for a number of new government regulations and fee changes to come into force.

They include:

• About one million children eligible for the Ontario Child Benefit payment will see an annual increase of $100 annually for a total of $1,310. Tying the annual increase to inflation will require the budget to be passed.
• Enforcement officers will no longer have to testify in court about some minor provincial offences and municipal bylaw infractions, such as parking tickets, under amendments to regulations under the Provincial Offences Act. Instead, prosecutors in Provincial Offences Court will be able to use certified statements. Officers will still be required to appear in court for more serious offences, such as speeding.
• Amendments to the regulations under the Courts of Justice Act make it easier for courts to identify and address vexatious cases.
• An Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act amendment clarifies that the Tarion Warranty Corporation’s major structural defect (MSD) policy that came into effect on July 1, 2012, supersedes any contrary provisions in agreements between vendors and builders and Tarion.
• Community support service agencies will be able to assess and provide more services to clients needing personal support services through amendments to a regulation under the Home Care and Community Services Act. Currently, only Community Care Access Centres can provide these services.
• Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act all students attending primary or secondary school will need to have proof of immunization against three more diseases: meningococcal disease, whooping cough and, for children born in 2010 or later, chickenpox. These are in addition to requirements for
• New regulatory requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act will require all Ontario employers to ensure workers and supervisors complete a mandatory basic occupational health and safety awareness training program.

The Wynne government has not said yet how long the legislature will sit this summer.