Ontario Members of Provincial Parliament will return to the legislature Tuesday with a relatively full agenda after a six-week break.
Here are five things to watch out for:
WILL FORD TESTIFY?
Ontarians can expect questions about the use of the Emergencies Act back in January during a weeks-long occupation of downtown Ottawa and blockade at Canada-U.S. border crossings.
On Monday, a summons was issued for Premier Doug Ford and former solicitor general Sylvia Jones to testify at the public inquiry. Commission lawyers said the summons was issued after both Ford and Jones declined to voluntarily appear.
In a statement, the Ministry of the Attorney General said the government would be fighting the summons, arguing it is "inconsistent with the members' parliamentary privilege."
"Ontario has worked with the commission by providing an extensive report outlining all key actions taken by Ontario, producing hundreds of documents including key cabinet documents that informed decision making and by making senior Ontario officials available to be called as witnesses," Spokesperson Andrew Kennedy said in a statement to CTV News Toronto Monday afternoon.
"We believe that questions about Ontario’s institutional response will be sufficiently addressed by the testimony from the two senior officials already selected by the commission."
Last week, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Ford of shirking his responsibilities during the occupation. Watson said Ford "felt it was a waste of time" to participate in meetings between all levels of government.
SWEEPING HOUSING LEGISLATION
The Ontario government is expected to table new legislation on Tuesday afternoon.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing will make the official announcement at 3:30 p.m. at Queen's Park. CTVNewsToronto.ca will stream the announcement live.
The legislation is meant to push the province's plan to build 1.5 million homes in the 10 years and could include changes to municipal zoning.
Late Monday night the province issued a press release saying it would be raising the non-resident speculation tax on homes purchased by foreign nationals from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.
The tax hike will go into effect on Tuesday.
The government may also be releasing more details about the province's new strong mayor powers. Ford has previously said the powers would be extended to other large municipalities sometime in the next year.
As it stands, only the new mayors of Toronto and Ottawa will be given these powers—which allows mayors to veto bylaws in order to push through provincial priorities, control the city's budget and hire or fire top officials—on Nov. 15.
- New details show how veto works with strong mayor powers
A "provincial priority" has been defined in proposed regulations as anything that progresses the PC's pledge to build 1.5 million new homes as well as any construction and maintenance of infrastructure that supports housing, including transit, roads and utilities.
CUPE NEGOTIATIONS STALLED
Negotiations between the Ontario government and education workers stalled last week. The union representing more than 50,000 employees--which includes custodians, early childhood educators and school administration staff—has said it is "very possible" they will proceed with a strike if they are unable to reach a deal.
"We were just reflecting that in the past we tried work-to-rule with this difference and meant nothing to them, in fact, it was only when we went to a full withdrawal of services in 2019, when we were moving towards that, that we were actually able to get them to come and truly negotiate at the table," Laura Walton, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, told reporters on Oct. 19.
While mediations are set to resume on Nov. 1, there will likely be questions at the legislature about the Ontario government's decision to spend $365 million on direct payments to help kids "catch up" with their education.
Parents with children up to 18 years old can apply for $200 while parents with children with special needs up to the age of 21 can apply for $250.
The government has said the money can be used for additional tutoring supports, supplies or equipment that support learning. Meanwhile, Walton argues that tutoring is "no substitute for the stability of highly-qualified frontline education workers in schools."
HALLWAY HEALTHCARE
The province will also face further questions about the state of health care in Ontario. During the six-week break, the Ontario Liberal Party leaked a report showing Ontario hospital wait times increased about 54 per cent in a year.
MPP Dr. Adil Shamji said the evidence was "damning" and called on the government to "explain their mismanagement of the health-care system."
“In short, the data reveals that for the month of August 2022, wait times, emergency department length of stay, time for an admitted patient to move to an inpatient bed, and ambulance offload times were the worst they have ever been when compared to every other August since 2008.”
At the time, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health put the blame for the province's health-care woes on the previous Liberal government, citing 15 years of mismanagement.
In August, the PC government released a plan for "health-care stability and recovery,' pledging to add thousands of health-care workers and free up 2,500 hospital beds.
The plan included legislation that would allow senior patients in hospital waiting to be placed in a long-term care home to be transferred to a facility not of their choosing.
Ontario's chief medical officer of health has said he expects a tough winter, with the possibility of a COVID-19 and a flu resurgence.
ANOTHER FISCAL UPDATE COMING
The province is scheduled to released by Nov. 15.
Ontario ended the last fiscal year with a $2.1 billion surplus, which the government has said is a result of revenues that were 20 per cent higher than the 2021 budget forecast.
The next fiscal update will include any new funding promises and investments made by the provincial government since they tabled their 2022 budget in June.
