Welcome to my community newsletter. Spring is officially here and legislators are hard at work in Queen’s Park for the spring session. You can catch some of the action here.
Need help? See my website to plan your visit: Contact-MPP Ted Hsu.
Here’s what you can find in this month’s issue:
Across Ontario
Fewer Backlogs and Less Partisan Tribunals Act
Partisan Judges
Post-secondary Funding
Four-plex Opposition
PDAC
Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic
Local Issues
Howe Island Ferry
CDK Doctors Update
Extendicare Site
ICH Funding Expires
In Our Community
Meeting with Kingston Chapter of RNAO
Periwinkle Primary Healthcare Initiative
USports Men’s Volleyball at Queen’s
Public Skating Event
WeRPN Meeting
KMFRC
Queen’s MPA
Seedy Saturday
Revved Up Event
Warm regards,
Ted
Across Ontario
Here are some of the big stories from Ontario over the last month.
Fewer Backlogs and Less Partisan Tribunals Act
This month, I tabled my Private Member’s Bill, Bill 179, the Fewer Backlogs and Less PartisanTribunals Act, 2024. It addresses the delays in tribunals, such as the Landlord and Tenant Board, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Social Benefits Tribunal and the Licence Appeal Tribunal (for automobile accident insurance disputes). These delays have caused a lot of unnecessary distress and are a result of unfilled tribunal seats and inexperienced appointees. When the current government took power, they refused to re-appoint many qualified tribunal members appointed by the previous government. The legislation creates an independent Council to monitor the appointment, operational and severance policies of Ontario’s tribunals. It will have proactive approval, reporting and investigative powers and its chair will be an Officer of the Legislative Assembly.
This oversight Council will work to ensure that appointments of members and chairs of Ontario’s tribunals are done in a merit-based way, and that tribunal seats are filled quickly instead of left vacant, waiting for the government of the day’s “preferred” people. The bill is expected to be debated on Thursday, April 18th. If you would like to speak out about the bill, by writing your MPP, writing newspapers, posting on social media or passing this on to interested friends, please do so over the next three weeks. Please contact me if you would like to know or do more, or look at the website www.maketribunalsbetter.com.
Democracy Watch has announced plans to file a court case against what it claims is the government’s overly political and unconstitutional process for appointing judges to provincial courts. This comes after two former senior political staff from the Premier’s Office were appointed to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee (JAAC), one as chair and the other as member. The JAAC provides the minister with a list of candidates from which to select potential judges. This month, the Premier very publicly and repeatedly affirmed that he made these JAAC appointments because he wanted his judges to be, “like-minded people.” Also, this month, Global News found that the newly appointed chair of JAAC is a registered lobbyist for several industries, including forestry, travel, and an American gun manufacturer. This is not how judges should be selected – maintaining the perception of judicial impartiality and non-partisanship is critical in preserving public trust in our courts.
College and university budgets are under significant pressure due to reduced provincial government funding, the inability to raise tuition to cover increased costs, and now, caps on the number of international students whose full tuition fees have been providing financial support. Recently, the Minister of Colleges and Universities announced a one-time funding package of $1.3 billion over 3 years. Experts and opposition MPPs say the funding is nowhere near enough – it falls well short of the $2.5 billion the Minister’s own Blue-Ribbon Panel recommended. Her announcement did not address the cap on international student numbers. As you might expect these government decisions will significantly impact Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College in my home riding. The Minister also introduced a bill making some of that $1.3 billion go towards student mental health support systems, implementing anti-hate policies, and increased transparency regarding the use of school tuition fees. She repeated that the government would maintain the tuition freeze initiated in 2019 (which means that tuition funding for education is frozen and not adjusted for inflation). I believe that if we want our youth to compete on the world stage, we need adequate support for post-secondary education. You can view my question in the Legislature here.
The Premier held a news conference recently and ruled out any provincial four-plex as-of-right housing policy, a main recommendation in his own 2022 Housing Affordability Task Force report. The policy would allow home builders to construct housing of up to four units on parcels without waiting for extra approvals. The Premier decided against the policy because of potential local outcry and political costs. Pro-housing experts have aired their disappointment, stating that this move proves that the current government is not serious about the housing affordability crisis. The Premier’s announcement comes after an opposition party earlier in the week announced it would support province-wide four-plex as-of-right, setting the stage for a policy debate. Watch My Question
I enjoyed spending the day at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference talking to a very diverse sample of mining stakeholders, from a majority Indigenous-owned services company to Ministry staff, to major producers and two prospectors from Newfoundland.
Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic
I attended the March Classic hosted by the Grain Farmers of Ontario and talked to seed providers, farmers, grain elevator companies, and all kinds of agriculture stakeholders. As the new Agricultural and Rural Affairs Critic, I’m looking forward to making connections and taking a deeper look into the challenges our agricultural community faces here in Ontario.
If you want more frequent updates about provincial news, subscribe to my Weekly Wrap where I cover five of the top news stories of the week.
Local Issues
Over the past few weeks, residents of Howe Island have had to accommodate a rash of mechanical issues shutting down their ferry. The disruptions reached their peak on Wednesday March 27th, when both the main County Ferry, and the pedestrian ferry, were shut down at the same time. Work is currently ongoing to outfit the County Ferry with a different drive unit. I submitted a written question last year, asking if MTO had plans to allocate funding for a new drive unit in that quarter’s budget. I was eventually told that no such plans existed. Instead, they would evaluate all options to ensure the continued reliability of the ferry. However, the ferry’s sustainability has clearly not improved. Last Thursday, I spoke to Minister Sarkaria about this matter in person, asking him what his short and long term plans were for resolving these mechanical issues. This included asking him if a new drive unit would be purchased. He indicated that he would check with his staff to see what the next steps would be for the ferry. Unfortunately, I have been unable to connect with him this week. I am glad to hear that the drive unit is being replaced. I would, however, like to know what the condition of this (used) replacement drive unit is, and whether further measures are planned to fully resolve these recurring mechanical issues. Residents of Howe Island deserve a reliable and sustainable way of getting to and from the mainland, and I will be sure to let you know as soon as I hear what the Ministry’s strategy on this is.
This month, I met with the Kingston chapter of the RNAO at Queen’s Park. The Registered Nurses and I discussed the current challenges nurses are facing, and how to move forward, and the improvement of working conditions at Kingston Community Health Centres over the past year. We agreed to keep in touch regularly so I can stay up-to-date on healthcare related issues.
I have spoken several times with Health Minister Sylvia Jones about the lineups to roster at the CDK medical clinic, and the process of moving people from the Health Care Connect waitlist to physician rosters. She said that her office has spoken with Health Care Connect about possible ways to streamline the process of contacting people on the HCC waitlist and passing them on to primary care teams. I will continue to push for solutions, because nobody should feel like they must line up at 3:30am in the morning to get a doctor.
We hear residents have concerns about the City of Kingston’s use of the Extendicare property it recently purchased. Right now, the plan is for transitional housing despite the area being zoned for healthcare facilities. The city is reaching out to community service providers about possible partnerships. I will continue to follow the situation.
Many municipalities, from Windsor to Timmins to Kingston, are wondering about funding for supervised consumption sites. With all the responsibilities placed on municipalities, they need provincial support to deal with substance abuse. In October of last year, Ontario paused approving new supervised Consumption and Treatment Services funding while it conducted a review of all sites. The funding for the Kingston’s Integrated Care Hub expires soon – the government needs to decide now. CTS sites in Timmins and Sudbury have had to find private and corporate donors (like Vale Mining in Sudbury) to tide them over.
In Our Community
Periwinkle Healthcare Initiative
Thanks to Dr. Pilon for meeting with me this month about Periwinkle. I’m excited about this innovative project to provide primary care in Kingston and to be a model for the rest of the province. One issue I want to highlight is how they’ll work with the Health Care Connect waiting list. The bottleneck in transferring patients from the HCC waiting list to patient rosters was the root cause of the long lineups to become new patients of the Montreal St. CDK clinic.
USports Men’s National Volleyball Championship
The USports Men’s Volleyball Championship was hosted at Queen’s University this year. I’m glad to see that the Gaels had a good season, placing fourth! Congratulations to the team and all the staff and organizers who made this possible.
Thank you for everyone that came out to chat with Mark Gerrestsen and I at our March Break Skating Party! I had insightful conversations with constituents about many issues, including healthcare, schools and Landlord and Tenant Board delays.
This month, I attended a celebration of the Kingston Military Family Resources Centre’s 30th anniversary. I spoke with board members and the CFB Kingston base commander. The top three stressors military families are feeling are housing, healthcare, and childcare. I’m grateful that we have such a long-standing resource for military families in Kingston – 30th years is truly an accomplishment.
I had the pleasure of chatting with students from the Master’s of Public Administration program at Queen’s University when they came to visit Queen’s Park. We talked about current issues, including university funding and how insufficient supports are impacting the lives of students.
People came from 50km in all directions to Seedy Saturday here at Cookes Portsmouth United Church to buy and sell seeds. Events like these are part of an important culture supporting crop diversity, a component of planning for a sustainable future – I’m glad I had the opportunity to stop by.
It was an honour to attend the first annual Walk N’Roll A-Thon to support the Revved Up Program. Kingston is lucky to have the Revved Up Program helping community members with mobility impairments and developmental disabilities. It is made possible by kinesiology student volunteers and the Queen’s University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. No matter who you are, you have health benefits from being more physically active, socializing and having fun. Programs like Revved Up make that happen. I will always advocate for these types of programs and organizations to get the recognition and funding they deserve.