Category: News

* The Ontario Medical Association upped the ante Thursday in its ongoing compensation negotiations with the province. The OMA put brain drain on the table, saying a doctor shortage in the U.S. could lure some doctors sou ...

...

By Kenyon Wallace A northern First Nation community says it has been stonewalled by the province in its efforts to learn details of the Cliffs chromite mining project in Ontario’s Far North. Sonny Gagnon, chief of the ...

. . . at Queen's Park, across Ontario and elsewhere. * The Aggregate Resources Act review is hitting the road. After much fuss over Tory members' allegations that the Liberals and the NDP were avoiding travel for the lo ...

...

...

* Former Tory premier Ernie Eves was hung at Queen’s Park on Tuesday evening ― his portrait that is. Eves was Ontario’s 23rd premier, serving from 2002 to 2003, when Premier Dalton McGuinty took office. * It may not be ...

By Andrew Reeves The Standing Committee on Social Policy met on Tuesday afternoon. On the Agenda: Public deputations continued on Bill 13 and Bill 14 with two more hours of discussion. Presenters from Network of Famili ...

...

* NDP leader Andrea Horwath asked Premier Dalton McGuinty on Monday about rumours that the Liberals are attempting to lure individual MPPs away from opposition seats with high-profile appointments. The Premier replied d ...

Bill 8, Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012 was approved by the Committee on General Government and will now be reported to the House for Third Reading. Bill 11, Attracting Investment and Cr ...

Inside Ontario is a weekly roundup of issues prepared by Contributing Editor Kenyon Wallace. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is raising alarm bells over a clause in the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehen ...

* The one constant at Queen's Park over the past little while has been the incessant ringing of the Sessions Bells as part of a de facto filibuster by the Tories over the government's refusal to set up a separate committ ...

...

* Premier Dalton McGuinty said in Waterloo on Thursday that he is no hurry to call a by-election to replace Elizabeth Witner but that he won't necessarily wait until the opposition parties have nominated their candidates ...

By Andrew Reeve On the Agenda: A clause-by-clause consideration of Bill 2 that would provide a tax credit to seniors doing home renovations (up to $10,000) to allow them to stay longer in their homes as they age. Proce ...

* Ontario's midwives were at Queen's Park on Wednesday to press their case for more access to Ontario hospitals and better pay. Negotiations between the province and the Association of Ontario Midwives have been stalled ...

By Richard J. Brennan A group dedicated to higher speed limits staged a so-called civil disobedience drive Tuesday from Kitchener to Oakville doing exactly 100 kmh. Robby Smink and his brother Tom drove two cars, one i ...

* Speaker Dave Levac ruled Tuesday against a complaint made by Tory MPP Jane McKenna that her privileges as a member of the Legislature were violated when constituents in her Burlington riding received robo-calls directi ...

Queen's Park Briefing spoke recently with Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce President Harold Wilson on the Far North Act, legislation PC MPP Norm Miller and the PC caucus have recently attempted to repeal. Queen's Park Br ...

. . . at Queen’s Park, across Ontario and elsewhere: * Tributes were given in the legislature Monday by the three party leaders lauding the public service of Elizabeth Witmer, who resigned Friday as the Tory MPP for Kit ...

Norfolk County has filed an application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board claiming that the Ontario Nurses Association has engaged in bad faith bargaining with respect to the county's 32 public health nurses "It b ...

Bill 2, Healthy Homes Renovation Tax Credit Act, 2012, remained in the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. This marks the fourth week in a row that the bill has been under consideration in committee. Bil ...

Inside Ontario is a weekly roundup of issues  prepared by Contributing Editor Kenyon Wallace. The organization representing Ontario’s private motor coach companies says the contracting out of GO Transit bus services cou ...

* A young skin cancer survivor spoke Thursday about her experiences with tanning beds. Kate Neale joined the Canadian Cancer Society ― and 80 volunteers and staff ― at Queen’s Park to lobby for a new private member’s bi ...

. . . at Queen's Park, across Ontario and elsewhere: * Every member of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills received his or her very own copy of Cottage Dog on Wednesday — not because the publication ...

* The Standing Committee on Social Policy wasn't able to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss PC MPP Elizabeth Witmer's Bill 14 because debate had resumed on Education Minister Laurel Broten's Bill 13. Parliamentary protoco ...

* The City of Guelph is to go on trial in August over Ministry of Labour charges that were laid after a 14-year-old girl was killed by a collapsing cinder block wall. * A judge has ruled that a Belleville doctor must pa ...

Bill 8, Ontario One Call Act, 2012, is before the Standing Committee on General Government, which has an afternoon of hearings on its contents slated for its next meeting on Monday, April 23. Bill 11, Attracting Investm ...

By Richard J. Brennan The influential executive compensation industry is driving up the salaries for chief executive officers in Ontario’s health sector and elsewhere, a veteran industry insider says. “There’s a good r ...

Inside Ontario is a weekly roundup of issues  prepared by Contributing Editor Kenyon Wallace. The Ontario Library Association says the federal government’s recent decision to end funding for a national program to improv ...

* Health Minister Deb Matthews toured three hospitals Thursday, each of which is slated for expansion and each located in ridings held by Tory MPPs. Matthews’s tour took her to Joseph Brant Hospital in Jane McKenna’s Bu ...

Monday, April 23 The Standing Committee on General Government will meet to consider Bill 8, An Act respecting Ontario One Call Ltd.  2 p.m. Room 228 Tuesday, April 24 The Standing Committee on Government Agencies will ...

Tory MPP Jane McKenna, who says she will vote against the Ontario budget next week, says her constituents are receiving robo-calls warning that a budget defeat would jeopardize funding for the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospi ...

* A report by Colleges Ontario states that 83 per cent of Ontario college graduates found jobs last year within six months of graduation. * The City of Vaughan hopes so save more than $730,000 a year by switching insura ...

* MADD Canada launched its 2012 campaign Thursday. It encourages and empowers Canadians to report suspected impaired drivers to police by calling 911. * The Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games Organizing Committee is look ...

The union representing workers at Cascades' Norampac-Trenton paper mill remain optimistic after the company announced in the middle of contract talks that it was closing the facility on June 1. Dave Moffatt, Ontario VP ...

...

The Standing Committee on General Government met Monday afternoon to consider Bill 11, the Attracting Investment and Creating Jobs Act, 2011. If implemented,  the act would require the Minister of Economic Development a ...

Consumer Services Minister Margarett Best scored a solid hit with her bill to regulate cell phone contracts, winning support from the opposition parties and some solid media coverage. Getting good media for a bill that ...

The Standing Committee on Social Policy met Monday to consider Bill 20,  an Act to amend the Building Code Act, 1992. Proceedings: After little debate and two quick amendments, the committee voted to carry an amended ve ...

From first-year seminars to social media in the classroom, Ontario universities are exploring myriad ways to bring teaching – and learning – into the 21st century. “The amount of blended learning that is going on today ...

Health Minister Deb Matthews is asking the Ontario doctors to accept a real wage freeze at current levels as they continue negotiations for a new contract. She says the government is resetting the focus of Health paymen ...

Legislation that would allow disputes in the province’s non-profit housing co-operatives to go before the Landlord and Tenant Board was tabled Monday by Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Kathleen Wynne. Currently, ...

* Tory MPP Todd Smith says the Liberal government's budget amounts to "tinkering" that does not address the need to ease the provincial deficit and reduce the accumulated debt. "The Liberals did not reduce spending, but ...