Ontario Legislature rising for 21-week summer break until end of October

Ontario’s legislature started a 21-week break on Tuesday and by the time members of provincial parliament return from the summer recess, it will nearly be Halloween.

Opposition leaders say the time politicians spend introducing, debating and passing bills in the legislature is shrinking under Premier Doug Ford’s government, and they believe it’s a way to avoid accountability.

“It’s wrong, and the government’s just getting in the habit of doing this,” said Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser. “They don’t want to be here. They don’t want the scrutiny.”

The house had been set to resume from a summer break in mid-September, but Government House Leader Steve Clark said it will instead come back on Oct. 27, the day after the municipal elections, so as not to interfere with that process.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said nothing about the legislature being in session interferes with the municipal elections.

“It’s BS if the government [says it] is not bringing us back because they don’t want to interfere in municipal elections,” he said.

Besides, Schreiner said, the Ford government interferes with municipal business “all the time.”

The government cut the size of Toronto’s city council during the 2018 municipal elections, gave strong mayor powers to more than 200 communities, passed a law to let it directly appoint regional council chairs, wants to take away Toronto’s control of its island airport, and has implemented speed camera and bike lane laws over the objections of municipalities.

The extended summer break comes after the legislature sat for 30 days, following a 14-week winter break.

‘No one can question my work ethic,’ Ford says

Ford said he will still be working hard, noting that he is travelling to Utah, Washington, D.C., and South Carolina this summer to continue pitching his message of dropping tariffs, and will be heading to the Calgary Stampede, then meeting with his fellow premiers.

“No one can question my work ethic,” he said. “The next three months I am jammed from six in the morning, I don’t get home until midnight every single night.”

The machinery of government will still chug along, Ford said.

“Rather than sitting here and arguing with each other, we’re actually going to get out there and talk to the people and start bringing more jobs to Ontario,” he said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said it sends the wrong message to have the legislature grind to a halt for so long.

“I think the people of Ontario expect the government and every single member that they have elected to roll up their sleeves and work just as hard as they do every day,” she said.

“This government can’t get out of this place fast enough, because we are calling them to account every day.”