A Hail Mary pass at committee
And Clark testifies
ABOVE THE FOLD
Housing Minister STEVE CLARK was in the hot seat at committee over his controversial strong-mayor legislation — but first, the NDP is throwing a Hail Mary pass at putting the hospital-to-long-term-care transfer legislation under the microscope.
NO COMMITTEE FOR YOU, ONTARIO — As first reported in this newsletter, Government House Leader PAUL CALANDRA has put the patient transfer legislation on the fast track — meaning it would skip the committee process where stakeholders get to weigh in and Oppo MPPs can propose amendments.
But, citing an urgent need to free up desperately needed hospital beds — including by making it more common to stick families with the bill for the uninsured daily rate for a hospital stay, sometimes racking up hundreds of dollars — Calandra introduced the time-allocation motion.
It also speeds up the process for Bill 2, the budget implementation legislation. Calandra’s motion will almost certainly pass thanks to the PCs majority — and mu…