Ontario.

• Author: Koch, Katch
• Position: Legislative Reports

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The first session of the 40th Parliament resumed on February 21, 2012.

On March 26, the minority government of Premier Dalton McGuinty presented its first Budget, which passed on April 24 by a vote of 52 government members to 37 votes from the Official Opposition; the Third Party New Democrats abstained.

Shortly thereafter, on April 27, one of the Assembly's longer-serving MPPs, Elizabeth Witmer, resigned as the Member for Kitchener-Waterloo in order to accept an appointment as Chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. During her almost 22 years in the Legislative Assembly, Mrs. Witmer served as Deputy Premier, Minister of Education, Minister of Environment, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and Minister of Labour in the Cabinets of Premier Mike Harris and Premier Ernie Eves. A bye-lection has not yet been called to fill this vacancy.

On May 31 the House with unanimous consent adopted a motion that provided a "timetable" for the consideration and completion of certain business of the House and its committees. The motion extended the spring sitting from June 7 to June 20 so that various legislation could be dealt with before the Summer Adjournment of the Legislature, and also included provisions for dealing with Private Members' public bills and authorizing certain committees to meet during the summer of 2012. An interesting feature of the motion was its inclusion of an order to the Attorney General requiring him, early in the fall sitting, to introduce legislation to amend a section of the Legislative Assembly Act respecting the composition of the Board of Internal Economy, to provide for parity of membership between the government and opposition parties.

Committee Activities

Prior to the Winter break, the recognized parties agreed on the distribution of Chairs for the nine standing committees, and early in the Spring sitting the House appointed the membership of its committees.

The motion doing so also instructed the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly, to the exclusion of other business, to study and report on the Standing Orders. That review is currently underway.

Following the presentation of the Budget, the main Estimates for the fiscal year 2012-2013 were tabled in the Legislature and referred to the Standing Committee on Estimates. In reviewing the estimates for the Ministry of Energy, the Committee requested the Minister of Energy to provide it with certain documents relating to the...