Ontario.

• Author: Koch, Katch
• Position: Legislative Report

The First Session of the 39th Parliament adjourned on Thursday, December 10, 2009. Prior to the winter adjournment, the Legislature passed a number of important bills including Bill 218, An Act to implement 2009 Budget measures and to enact, amend or repeal various Acts. The bill will enable Ontario to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax on July 1, 2010 in a previously negotiated agreement between the Province and the Federal Government. This taxation measure was initially announced in the 2009 Ontario Budget and once implemented; the authority to collect the sales tax would no longer reside in provincial legislation. Bill 218 generated fierce debates in the Legislative Assembly with repeated demands from the two opposition parties for extensive public consultations. At times, the proceedings of the House fell into grave disorder and resulted in the Official Opposition Party walking out during a Question Period, the suspension of two Official Opposition Members from the service of the House for the remainder of the session when they refused to leave the Chamber after being named by the Speaker, and the filing of some 500,000 amendments in the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs when the bill was referred to the committee for consideration.

Another topic that dominated much of the fall session was the special report of the Auditor General on Ontario's Electronic Health Records Initiative. This audit was tabled by the Auditor in October at the request of the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts instead of the usual year-end reporting in December.

In November 2009, George Smitherman, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure resigned from the Executive Council and in January 2010, Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing followed suit. The two ministers resigned from Cabinet to run for mayor of the cities of Toronto and Ottawa respectively, which prompted a much anticipated cabinet shuffle by the Premier on January 18, 2010. Mr. Smitherman subsequently resigned as Member of Provincial Parliament for Toronto Centre on January 3, 2010 and a by-election was called for February 4, 2010.

Committee Activities

All legislative committees, in particular the policy-field committees, were very busy during the second half of the fall session dealing with government legislation. The Standing Committee on General Government considered Bill 185, An...