Politicians returned to the Ontario legislature on Monday and re-elected the Speaker, a day before the government is due to deliver a speech to the throne and present a new budget.
The summer session comes as the re-elected Progressive Conservative government faces a health workforce crisis that is overburdening hospitals and skyrocketing inflation that has led to calls to increase disability support payment rates.
The first order of business for the returning lawmakers was to elect a Speaker, with the majority choosing Ted Arnott, a Progressive Conservative who served as Speaker for the previous four years.
“I was surprised at various points during the Speaker election process by some of the things I was hearing, both good and bad, from my perspective,” Arnott said after being elected.
“But I also received a lot of feedback from members, which I found very helpful in terms of how I can do a better job if I have the opportunity to serve again, and I hope to put that knowledge to good use.”
Arnott was not nominated as Speaker by his own party: an NDP member put forward his name, while a Tory member nominated Nina Tangri, who served as deputy minister for small business and red tape reduction and would have become the first woman to serve as Speaker. she won.
“It’s democracy and Ted was a great speaker in the past and I’m sure he will continue to be,” Tangri said.
Outside the legislature on Monday, people representing various unions and labor groups protested Prime Minister Doug Ford’s government, asking him to include more investment in public services, health care, higher wages and paid sick days in the next budget. .
On Tuesday, a speech from the throne will outline the Progressive Conservative government’s agenda, followed by the budget, which is expected to remain largely unchanged since it was tabled but not passed in the spring before the election.
The only new item Ford has signaled will be in the budget is a five percent increase in Ontario Disability Support Program fees, which have been frozen since 2018 at up to $1,169 per month for a single person for necessities. Basic and housing.
Green Party leader Mike Schreiner said Ford needs to double rates so people with disabilities don’t have to live in “lawful poverty.”
The Liberals and the opposition NDP have also called on the government to increase those payments, and all three parties have also called on Ford to repeal wage restraint legislation as a way to ease nursing shortages that have caused the temporary closure of hospitals. emergency rooms around the world. province this summer.
Nursing groups and opposition politicians have called on the government to repeal Bill 124, passed in 2019, which capped wage increases for nurses and other public sector workers at one per cent a year for three years.
Schreiner said his priorities also include seeing an end to exclusionary zoning and deeply affordable housing investments, as well as canceling highway projects like Ford’s signature commitment to build Highway 413 around the Greater Toronto Area.
It’s not yet clear how long the legislature will sit, for a brief summer session or continue through the winter break, but another piece of legislation the government has indicated is coming is the so-called strong mayor bill.
Ford has said his administration aims to have a system that puts more power in the hands of the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa before municipal elections scheduled for October.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 8, 2022.