"MORE STABILITY": PCs increase the official party status threshold

According to opposition MPs, the Doug Ford government is conducting an expensive and mean-spirited vendetta campaign over its political rivals.

The PC government raises the threshold of official party status, making it much more likely that its main political rival, the Ontario Liberal Party and its seven MPs, have few resources and one voice. reduced to the legislature for the next four years.

In addition, according to a Globe and Mail report, Ford's chief of staff has stepped in to quit a former Patrick Brown staff member from his executive position at Ontario Power Generation (OPG).

After a heated question period during which Finance Minister Vic Fedeli called an NDP MP "idiotic", at least two cabinet ministers from the PC were quickly released from office while others never opposed the press.

Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, elected for the first time in June, said a close scrutiny by parliament revealed what he had long suspected: Queen's Park was obsessed with political games who defended the interests of the people.

"It would appear that the government is motivated by a political agenda to determine what is good for them and not what is good for democracy and for the people," said Schreiner.

Liberal Leader John Fraser said the new official party status regulation does not take into account the vote of 1.1 million Ontarians who supported the Liberals and nearly 264,000 who supported the Green Party from Ontario.

"This action speaks volumes about the government," Fraser said.

Ontario House Leader Todd Smith confirmed Tuesday that the fall economic statement, to be released Thursday, will include a requirement to increase the number of official party seats from eight to eight. current seats.

"We bring a little more stability in this situation and try to dissuade politics," Smith said.

The size of the legislature rose from 107 to 124 in June, but so far the status of official parties has remained the same.

In the future, the number of seats required to obtain official party status will be 10% of the total number of seats – which means that the new number is 12.

Official status gives party members a place on committees and regular polls, as well as taxpayers' money for hiring additional staff and conducting research.

The Liberals lost a seat in the last provincial election, but they now need five seats to regain official party status.

Smith said it was the voters who decided to reduce the number of Liberal MPs to party status and that "voters are never wrong".

Liberal MP Marie-France Lalonde asked the Minister of Energy during Question Period about a report that OPG could earn up to $ 500,000 in funding. severance pay, after Ford's chief of staff, Dean French, reportedly called on the public generator to request that Alykhan Velshi be removed from office.

"OPG is a Crown corporation. they are responsible for their own staffing decisions, "said Rickford, refusing to confirm whether Mr. French had contacted OPG to rid him of his former staff member.

Meanwhile, NDP MP Sara Singh said that she had heard Fedeli say "silly" when she was asking him about a contract with the Cannabis Store in Ontario.

Fedeli stood up in front of the legislature to withdraw an unspecified unparliamentary remark and apologize.

"I am here as a member of the official opposition to ask tough questions to ministers," Singh said. "It is unfortunate that rather than answering my question directly, the minister is launching personal insults."

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