The premier will be headed to Bytown on Jan. 18 to take questions from the public. It's the third such town hall that Kathleen Wynne has attended over the past two months, with the first two having taken place in Toronto and Brampton. The event is being organized by the province, not the Liberal party, and anyone can attend and present their queries. Wynne focused her responses in the first two town halls on her political message of "fairness," and could hear more from Ontarians about the effects of the minimum wage in the Ottawa town hall, the first one to take place since Bill 148 was implemented on Jan. 1.
The town hall will take place at the Chamber at Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Dr., in Ottawa. The doors will open at 6 p.m. and the event will start at 7 p.m.
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The province is accepting applications from health-care and community organizations that would like to operate overdose prevention sites — also known as supervised injection sites — to help combat the opioid crisis.
Sites will be approved to operate for three to six months, with the possibility of extension, the province said in a news release Thursday.
“Every life lost to this opioid crisis is an avoidable tragedy and our government is committed to doing everything in our power to combat this public health crisis. Overdose prevention sites have proven to save lives by offering necessary health services to some of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations,” Health Minister Eric Hoskins said in the release.
Late last year, the province secured approval from the federal government to oversee and approve supervised injection sites. It came as the province found the number of recent opioid-related deaths has skyrocketed in Ontario. New numbers from the coroner show that from May to July 2017, there were 336 opioid-related deaths in Ontario, compared with 201 during the same time period in 2016.
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Construction began today on the $65-million Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project, which kicks off the larger Port Lands flood protection project east of downtown Toronto. The long-awaited major infrastructure project received funding from the federal government in 2017, allowing the $1.25-billion project to go forward.
The flood protection will ultimately create a renaturalized river mouth for the Don River, which was tweaked by industry several times in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly to negative results. The flood protection will also unlock large swaths of previously unusable real estate.
"This project will lead, over time, to increased access to the waterfront and successful new communities where families can thrive and businesses can grow and create new jobs," Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli said in a release.

In Brief: A Wynne town hall, overdose prevention site applications, and Toronto Port Lands construction begins

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