SCOOP: Summer sitting schedule revealed
Also: Countdown in Steeltown, meet the Forestry Minister's policy director, health reforms incoming, new daycare deadline, Murdoch memorial and more
ABOVE THE FOLD
A cure-all for the strained health care system is en route. The countdown to a Hamilton byelection is on. And the deadline to opt in for $10-a-day child care was extended. But first, we’ve got the skinny on the parliamentary calendar.
First in Queen’s Park Observer — NOT-SO-SLEEPY SUMMER: Sources have been telling us that, after this five-week summer session, MPPs would break until after the municipal elections are over on October 24. Government House Leader PAUL CALANDRA all but confirmed that.
“That’s my goal, whether that happens or not, but that is my goal — once we’re done this five-week session, give people a couple of weeks to catch their breath and then get back to it,” Calandra says.
It’s been a not-so-sleepy summer at Queen’s Park. After a busy campaign in June, MPPs and staff hit the ground running to pass the budget and strong-mayor legislation in time for the civic elections.
There’s also another recess coming up: the annual International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, which kicks off September 20 in Kemptville. It’s an important event in Ontario politics that, among other things, traditionally sees the party leaders face off in tractors to determine who can plow the straightest furrows.
It’s likely MPPs won’t reconvene after breaking for the IPM.
COUNTDOWN IN STEELTOWN — The clock is ticking on a byelection in Hamilton Centre.
Ex-NDP leader and MPP ANDREA HORWATH put the seat in play by officially handing in her resignation to Speaker TED ARNOTT Wednesday. Premier DOUG FORD now has six months to call a byelection (though the election itself doesn’t need to be held within six months, he needs to pick a date in that time frame).
By law, Horwath must resign her MPP seat by Friday, the deadline to sign up to run for local office.
One wannabe replacement is already out of the gate: SARAH JAMA, a prominent disability advocate, says she’s seeking the NDP nomination and would push to raise ODSP rates and revive a basic income project.
As first reported in this newsletter, ex-Grit leader STEVEN DEL DUCA also officially announced his bid for Vaughan Mayor this week.
CODE RED — Health Minister SYLVIA JONES is teasing “bold and innovative steps” to improve patient care as the nurse staffing shortage has forced emergency departments to close throughout the summer.
Jones dropped the hint in a speech to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s annual conference Wednesday, where she revealed the first plank in the plan: expanding a pilot program that allows paramedics to take patients somewhere besides an emergency room, such as a mental health facility, or to treat them on scene.
The full plan — billed as the next phase in the province’s “Plan to Stay Open” post-pandemic — is expected today. Jones, Long-Term Care Minister PAUL CALANDRA and Ontario Health president and CEO MATT ANDERSON will make it official at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
“We can no longer stand by and support a status quo that cannot respond to the current challenges the sector is facing,” Jones told AMO. “Instead, guided by the best evidence and the successes of other jurisdictions, our government will take bold action that prioritizes patients and their health care above all else.”
That’s code for further privatization, warned interim NDP Leader PETER TABUNS. “I’ve been listening to the Premier, it’s very clear they’re doubling down on privatization,” Tabuns told reporters, referencing Premier DOUG FORD’s comments that “all options are on the table.”
Another hint from CityNews: “The Ford government is planning to introduce legislation Thursday that will allow health officials to move people who are in hospital waiting for a long-term care bed into a home that is not in their community, according to senior government sources…The change will begin within a few weeks and the government hopes it will initially free up 250 beds in the next few months.”
Meanwhile, from Global News: “The head of Ontario’s health-care bureaucracy wants more integration between the public and private sectors to prevent hospitals from being ‘cannibalized’ as the Ford government considers introducing more privately delivered care to reduce pressure on the public system…
‘We’ve got to be careful about this, and we can’t be taking from the public system over into the private system. It’s a zero-sum game,’ Matthew Anderson told Global.”
DAYCARE DEADLINE — Child-care operators will have an extra two months to opt in to the $10-a-day program, in an effort to get more to apply.
Scoop from CP: “The Canadian Press has obtained a letter sent Wednesday to municipalities informing them that the deadline is being extended from September 1 to November 1, to allow operators more time to make decisions and ensure more parents can see savings.”
More: “Many child-care operators, particularly for-profit ones, have said they want to sign up in order to issue rebates to parents, but are hesitant about the implications to their business, and have expressed concern that each municipality has a different process. Ontario is now telling municipalities that they have to share an example of a standard agreement with all licensed operators in their region by August 29.”
Education Minister STEPHEN LECCE said the changes will spur participation.
“The extension, the red tape reduction, the streamlining, the certainty of the numbers when it comes to the fiscal impact for next year and beyond — all of this is what they’ve asked for.”
HAPPENING TODAY
— 9 a.m.: Ministers SYLVIA JONES and PAUL CALANDRA and Ontario Health CEO MATT ANDERSON will announce health care reforms at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
— 9:30 a.m.: NDP Housing critic JESSICA BELL is up in the Queen’s Park Media Studio to tease her forthcoming private member’s bill aimed at cracking down on money laundering in the real estate sector.
ON THE ORDER PAPER
First up: Bill 2, the budget implementation legislation, goes for another round of second-reading debate this morning.
After Question Period, MPPs will vote on second reading of Bill 3, Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. It then goes to committee for public consultation and possible amendments.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
STAFFING UP — MATTHEW STUBBINGS has joined Natural Resources and Forestry Minister GRAYDON SMITH’s team as director of policy.
PROMOTION — In Finance Minister PETER BETHLENFALVY’s office, COLINE VAN DE LOO is now a senior operations adviser, in addition to office manager. Van De Loo was previously executive assistant to Bethlenfalvy’s chief of staff.
In case you missed it, catch up on our scoop about the new chiefs of staff here.
TRANSITION — EMILY MCLAUGHLIN is now press secretary and senior issues manager to Agriculture Minister LISA THOMPSON. Mclaughlin was previously Thompson’s issues and Leg affairs manager.
PATRICE BARNES, parliamentary assistant to the Education Minister, has a new executive assistant: ANDREW WARD.
IN MEMORIAM: BILL MURDOCH, a PC MPP who represented Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound from 1990 to 2011, has passed away after a battle with cancer. Premier DOUG FORD tweeted condolences, calling Murdoch “a true leader for his community” that “will be dearly missed.”
QUESTION PERIOD
Premier DOUG FORD and the front bench got hammered on — you guessed it — health care. The NDP led the debate with a question about St. Joseph’s hospital, where 40 doctors penned a letter warning of an impending “crisis.” Ford said he “had a great conversation with [hospital head TIM] RUTLEDGE this morning regarding that” and “he is giving me the confidence that we’re going to move forward.”
THE HIGHLIGHTS: Clear the short-staffed surgery backlog — “A bed without a nurse is just furniture” — Save the Gogama nursing station — Why remove links to Indigenous science content from the elementary curriculum? — “Do the right thing” and double ODSP rates — Protect agricultural lands from developers — Fix the broken home care system — Get a fair deal with TSSA safety inspectors in time for The Ex — Ensure child care spaces for health workers — Tackle physician shortages up North.
MEDIA WATCH: DEAN FRENCH, the Premier’s embattled ex-chief of staff, spoke with Power & Politics about how he led negotiations between Ottawa’s mayor and trucker convoy leaders:
LOBBYING DISPATCH
Here are the new, renewed and amended registrations over the past 24 hours:
— Christopher Chapin, Upstream Strategy Group: Beef Farmers of Ontario, Information Services Corporation
— Jonathan Rose, Policy Concepts: Ontario Home Care Association, Building and Concrete Restoration Association of Ontario
— Andrew Boddington, Policy Concepts: Rick Hansen Foundation
— Jeff Rutledge, McMillan Vantage: Geosource Energy Inc
In-house organizations: Ontario Society of Professional Engineers — Canadian Cancer Society — Mastercard Canada.
🥳 HAPPY BIRTHDAY: MITCH DAVIDSON, chief of staff at iGaming Ontario and Ford’s former policy director.