How PCs and NDP will define the session
Third-party advertisers gear up
ABOVE THE FOLD
SPIN ZONE — This week gave us some more clues as to how the fall session is taking shape for the Ford government and Official Opposition.
The PCs have been in unofficial campaign mode all summer, and they’re about to kick it up a notch for what could be the final legislative sitting before an early election next spring.
The stakes are as high as ever. Here’s how the PCs and NDP have begun to frame the next session.
The latest: Transportation Minister PRABMEET SARKARIA signalled another piece of legislation is coming: the “Building Highways Faster Act,” which would fast-track construction for highways the province deems “priority,” such as Highway 413, Bradford Bypass and Garden City Skyway bridge in St. Catharines. It includes 24/7 construction and a sped-up environmental assessment process for the 413.
Future protesters, beware: The bill would also beef up penalties for potential anti-sprawl and environmental advocates who oppose the highways, including for obstructing access and damaging equipment. Details.
Add that to the mountain of populist-minded, suburban-friendly policies Premier DOUG FORD has been rolling out during this extended summer, including the bike-lane ban and 401 tunnel plan.
During his stump-style luncheon speech at the Empire Club, Ford rattled off a list of his government’s achievements and plans — especially when it comes to transportation, infrastructure and energy — and took his anti-bike-lane crusade a step further.
“We need to and will remove and replace existing bike lanes on primary roads that are bringing traffic in our cities to a standstill,” he said, to much applause.
Also: Ford took aim at Ottawa’s tax policies, weighed in on the U.S. election, and said he just hosted Newfoundland and Labrador Premier ANDREW FUREY at his home in the “great state of Etobicoke.” Watch.
Expect to hear plenty more about vote-grabbing goodies — like that $200 rebate cheque for every Ontarian that’s expected in the Fall Economic Statement — and about how the Tories have been “getting it done” — something akin to those progress reports from Ford’s social media accounts.
On the other side of the aisle, MARIT STILES has been champing at the bit. It’s been nearly five months since she’s had a chance to hold the Premier to account in Question Period.
Stiles offered up fresh fodder for the debate: A complaint to the ethics watchdog alleging “preferential treatment” and “irregularities” in the Therme deal at Ontario Place.
Specifically: Stiles, who had to sign an affidavit in her complaint to Integrity Commissioner J. DAVID WAKE, alleges that the process awarding the contract didn’t include the usual checks and balances — for instance, there was no fairness monitor and no independent third-party appointed to oversee the call for development.
“This evidence suggests that Therme received preferential treatment, and its private interests were improperly furthered, as a result of decisions for which Minister KINGA SURMA is ultimately responsible,” Stiles wrote in a letter to Wake.
Juicy nugget: The NDP included an FOI-ed email chain revealing that a lobbyist for Therme warned the Premier’s Office and Infrastructure Ontario about impending media coverage in July 2020. It was a tight comms plan.
The C-word: Stiles is expected to go hard on the angle that Ford is only in it for his buddies in Question Period. And while she hasn’t held back from throwing around the word “corrupt” outside the chamber, she might have a tougher time getting it by Speaker TED ARNOTT in the House.
Going old school: Stiles did a pre-session press conference in Windsor — territory the NDP is vying to win back from the PCs — at an elementary school, returning to her roots as the party’s Education critic and an ex-trustee.
“For six long years, Doug Ford has put the interests of his friends and insiders ahead of the needs of working families in Windsor-Essex. Nowhere is that neglect more apparent than in our kids’ schools, where overcrowding is the norm and the repair backlog just keeps getting bigger. Together, we can change that,” Stiles said.
HAPPENING TODAY
OPPO ITIN — 11:30 a.m.: MARIT STILES continues her pre-session school tour in the capital, specifically Nepean, which is a lot more competitive now that veteran PC LISA MacLEOD isn’t running again. Also on hand: Education critic CHANDRA PASMA, who poached Ottawa West-Nepean from the PCs in 2022. Stiles will highlight concerns about a local high school’s aging infrastructure.
12:10 p.m.: Ontario’s Big City Mayors will meet in Markham to discuss that hot-potato proposal calling on the province to allow involuntary drug treatment. They’ll also address reporters.
Set the table: BONNIE CROMBIE weighed in this week, and didn’t seem keen. “There isn’t the space for people who want treatment today, let alone involuntary treatment.” DOUG FORD, meanwhile, has to contend with the theory that two-thirds of Ontarians think he should be doing more on encampments.
FUNDRAISING WATCH — 9 a.m.: Brunch with the PCs goes for $1,000 a pop in Toronto. There’s no ministerial lineup posted, and regular readers will know the drill by now: that means DOUG FORD could make a cameo. Invite.
AROUND THE PALACE
No clown jokes about your favourite MPP: Before legislators return to the Pink Palace, families will descend on the South Lawn on Saturday for the Legislature’s Fall Festival, featuring a pumpkin patch, tours, music, face-painting, a juggler, stilt-walker and more.
CLIPPINGS
— AD WATCH: As political parties gear up for what could be an early election, so too do the third-party advertisers. Two fresh ad spots from new anti-Ford group Ontario Forward: