... at Queen's Park, across Ontario and elsewhere.

* More medical services can and should be provided by the private sector for Ontarians, according to Tory Leader Tim Hudak.

Hudak and PC health critic Christine Elliott were in downtown Toronto Friday unveiling key elements of their latest white paper on health care reform set for release next week.

“People with a health problem don’t care who owns or provides the service,” Hudak said in a statement, “so long as they can receive quality care when they need it and that it is covered by their OHIP card.”

Elliott told reporters the private sector presence in health care needs to be expanded.

“Doctors compete for patients, patients are free to choose their doctor, and we tender new hospital projects for the best proposal at the best price,” she said.

* MPPs are sitting in the Ontario legislature again. Well - almost MPPs. Ontario's Model Parliament sat in the House on Friday, the first substantial activity in the legislature since outgoing premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the House on Oct. 15.

Model parliamentarians from across the province came to deliver throne speeches, introduce and debate legislation, take questions from model media outlets and, yes, mercilessly heckle the honourable members opposite.

Premier-designate Kathleen Wynne made an appearance to address the Liberal delegation of the model parliament.

Liberal MPP Michael Couteau, New Democrat Catherine Fife and Tory MPP Peter Shurman were also on hand throughout the day to act as speaker.

Ontario Model Parliament at work / Photo by Andrew Reeves

* As part of the launch of BlackBerry 10 this week, Research In Motion announced the company would ask its shareholders to vote on changing the company name to BlackBerry from RIM.

On Friday, the company announced that starting Monday, the company will trade as "BB" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "BBRY" on the NASDAQ.

The legal name of the company will remain Research In Motion until approved by stakeholders later this year.

* The Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services has laid 63 charges under the Consumer Protection Act against Ontario Consumer Home Services Inc.

People in the Ottawa region complained about door-to-door sales of air conditioning units and rentals of water heaters and furnaces, alleging that agents representing the company led them to believe that:

"they represented the consumers’ existing service provider, or they were taking over from another service provider; and
they were performing an inspection required by the government, or the consumers might be eligible for service upgrades."

Lawyers from Brauti Thorning Zibarras LLP announced their clients "fully intend to defend the allegations in a court of law." The first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 28 in Ottawa.

* Twenty-one high school students completed the Program for Local Afforestation Network Training (PLANT) program run by Trees Ontario at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay. The province-wide program was launched in December to allow workers in the field to share practical skills with future forestry students.

"Without robust knowledge transfer strategies, Ontario is at risk of losing decades' worth of forestry knowledge, which could further impact future planting initiatives, and ultimately the health and integrity of local ecosystems and communities," Trees Ontario CEO Rob Keen said in a statement.

* Extreme fluctuations in Ontario's weather this winter is wreaking havoc on local barred owl populations around Kingston.

Since November, 20 barred owls and other species have been captured and brought to the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre after local residents noticed the weakened birds on their property.

“We’re getting an unprecedented amount of owls in and they’re mostly barred owls and they’re coming in with severe emaciation and dying,” the wildlife centre's Sue Meech told the Kingston Whig Standard.

“The spring was early and the fall was late and it seems that several of the owls had two batches of youngsters. That means there’s a lot of juveniles out there who are still learners and they’re not good hunters.”

Winter thaws followed by plunging temperatures melt snow where rodents burrow, forcing the owls' main food source underground. When temperatures drop, the deep freeze kills the rodents under the soil, ensuring far less food is available than is needed to sustain local barred owl populations.

* Officials in Guelph confirmed there was no risk to human health when a water main erupted underneath property with contaminated soil from a former municipal coal gasification plant.

Peter Busatto, general manager of water services for the city, told the Guelph Mercury that city staff were able to "maintain positive pressure in the leaking pipe beneath Surrey Street so none of the soil could enter the water system."

* A coalition of community groups in Prince Edward County opposed to wind development is demanding in an open letter to Premier-designate Wynne that Ontario's Green Energy Act be amended immediately to increase the minimum distance a wind turbine must be set back from a residence.

Currently, the legislation dictates that 550 metres is a safe distance, but the County Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Green Energy disagrees.

"It is abundantly clear that existing setback limits are unsafe for protected and unprotected wildlife species in Prince Edward County, and for rural residents in Ontario," coalition chair Garth Manning said in a statement.

"Government is not protecting either birds or people from the profit-driven invasion of wind power projects. We need amended legislation now."

* Use of fossil fuels for electricity generation has dropped by more than 15,000 gigawatt hours between 2007 and 2011, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.

Overall use dropped from 161, 515 gWh to 146,291 gWh over five years. Coal continues to make up the lions share of fossil fuels used for electricity generation, powering some 71,000 gWh in 2011.

Quote of the day

“All of that is in process at the moment.”
– Premier-designate Kathleen Wynne, displaying her penchant for bureaucratese as she commented on putting together a new cabinet.

Tweet of the day

- Heckling appears to be a problem even in Ontario's model parliament, according to Young Liberal William Norman.

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