37th Parliament, 1st Session

No. 36

No 36

Votes and Proceedings

Procès-verbaux

Legislative Assembly
of Ontario

Assemblée législative
de l'Ontario

Tuesday
April 4, 2000


Daytime Meeting - Sessional Day 56

Mardi
4 avril 2000


Séance de l'après-midi - jour de session 56

1st Session,
37th Parliament

1re session
37e législature

Prayers
1:30 P.M.

Prières
13 H 30

The Speaker delivered the following ruling:

On Tuesday, December 21, 1999, the member for Broadview-Greenwood (Ms. Churley) rose on a point of privilege to draw to the attention of the House a letter written by the member for Halton (Mr. Chudleigh) to the three House Leaders. The letter sought to rebut comments made by the member for Broadview-Greenwood about the way in which the Standing Committee on General Government had selected a candidate for the position of Environmental Commissioner, an officer of this Assembly.

I have reflected on the member's submissions, together with her written notice, the submissions of the Government House Leader, and relevant parliamentary authorities.

In her submissions, the member for Broadview-Greenwood indicated that the letter attacked her integrity as a member, that it made allegations about her conduct and character, and that it was intimidating and threatening in tone. The member took particular objection to a statement in the letter that expressed the hope that the Legislature and its members could, with the cooperation of the House Leaders, find some way to "extract" from her the apology that the standing committee's candidate for the position deserved.

In response, let me say that I can appreciate that, to some, the word "extract" implies the use of force. However, after reading and re-reading the sentence containing that word, as well as the entire letter, I do not believe the letter seeks to intimidate. I say this for several reasons. First, it is important to note that the letter was authored by an honourable member of this House, not by a non-member. Second, the letter does not suggest that the apology should be secured by other than legitimate means. Third, the letter does not suggest that some person or institution not associated with this House should seek to secure the apology; on the contrary, it suggests that the Legislature and its members should do that. Fourth, the member for Halton may be conclusory and argumentative in his view that the member for Broadview-Greenwood owes an apology to a prospective Assembly officer, but such a view does not in and of itself amount to a matter of privilege. In essence, what we have here is a disagreement between two members.

For these reasons, a prima facie case of privilege has not been made out.

I thank the member for Broadview-Greenwood for her point.

Reports by Committees

Rapports des Comités

Mr. Gerretsen from the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented the Committee's Annual Report 1998 and moved the adoption of its recommendations (Sessional Paper No. 92).

M. Gerretsen du Comité permanent des comptes publics présente le Rapport annuel 1998 du comité et propose l'adoption de ses recommandations (document parlementaire no 92)

On motion by Mr. Gerretsen,

Sur la motion de M. Gerretsen,

Ordered, That the debate be adjourned.

Il est ordonné que le débat soit ajourné.

Introduction of Bills

Dépôt des Projets de Loi

The following Bills were introduced and read the first time:-

Les projets de loi suivants sont présentés et lus une première fois:-

Bill 55, An Act to make parents responsible for wrongful acts intentionally committed by their children. Hon. Mr. Flaherty.

Projet de loi 55, Loi visant à rendre les pères et mères responsables des actes fautifs commis intentionnellement par leurs enfants. L'hon. M. Flaherty.

Bill 56, An Act to amend the Capital Investment Plan Act, 1993 to ensure that the Ontario Realty Corporation awards contracts in a fair and public way. Mr. Agostino.

Projet de loi 56, Loi modifiant la Loi 1993 sur le plan d'investissement pour veiller à ce que la Société immobilière de l'Ontario accorde des contrats de façon équitable et transparente. M. Agostino.

Deferred Votes

Votes différés

The deferred vote on the motion for Third Reading of Bill 31, An Act, in memory of Christopher Stephenson, to establish and maintain a registry of sex offenders to protect children and communities, was carried on the following division:-

La motion portant troisième lecture du projet de loi 31, Loi à la mémoire de Christopher Stephenson visant à créer et à tenir un registre des délinquants sexuels en vue de protéger les enfants et les collectivités, mise aux voix sur le vote différé, est adoptée par le vote suivant:-

AYES / POUR - 90

Agostino

Ecker

Maves

Baird

Elliott

Mazzilli

Barrett

Eves

McGuinty

Bartolucci

Flaherty

McLeod

Beaubien

Galt

Molinari

Bisson

Gerretsen

Munro

Bountrogianni

Gill

Mushinski

Boyer

Gravelle

Newman

Bradley

Guzzo

O'Toole

Brown

Hampton

Ouellette

Bryant

Hardeman

Parsons

Caplan

Harris

Peters

Christopherson

Hastings

Phillips

Chudleigh

Hodgson

Pupatello

Churley

Hoy

Runciman

Clark

Hudak

Ruprecht

Cleary

Jackson

Sampson

Clement

Johns

Sergio

Coburn

Kells

Snobelen

Colle

Klees

Spina

Conway

Kormos

Sterling

Cordiano

Kwinter

Stewart

Crozier

Lalonde

Stockwell

Cunningham

Lankin

Tascona

Curling

Levac

Tilson

DeFaria

Marchese

Tsubouchi

Di Cocco

Marland

Wettlaufer

Dombrowsky

Martel

Wilson

Duncan

Martin

Witmer

Dunlop

Martiniuk

Wood

NAYS / CONTRE - 0

And the Bill was accordingly read the third time and was passed.

En conséquence, ce projet de loi est lu une troisième fois et adopté.

Petitions

Pétitions

Petitions relating to the Northern Health Travel Grant program (Sessional Paper No. P-1). Mr. Gravelle and Mrs. McLeod.

Petition relating to Upgrading Highway 401 and investing federal gasoline tax revenue in Ontario road improvements (Sessional Paper No. P-9). Mr. Hoy.

Petition relating to Ceasing the funding of abortions (Sessional Paper No. P-14). Mr. Tilson.

Petition relating to Preventing exposure of minors to pornography in retail establishments (Sessional Paper No. P-19). Mr. O'Toole.

Petition relating to the Link between cancer and occupation (Sessional Paper No. P-32). Mr. Christopherson.

Petition relating to the Government of Ontario ensuring that Karla Homolka serves her full sentence in prison (Sessional Paper No. P-38). Mr. O'Toole.

Petition relating to Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation. (Sessional Paper No. P-60). Mr. Christopherson.

Petition relating to Access through Ontario Drug Benefit Plan to scientifically proven drug therapies. (Sessional Paper No. P-62). Mr. Bartolucci.

Petition relating to Re-instating previous assessment treatment on facilities to cultural organizations. (Sessional Paper No. P-63). Mr. Bradley.

Petition relating to Morgentaler abortuary. (Sessional Paper No. P-64). Mr. O'Toole.

Orders of the Day

Ordre du Jour

Mr. Harris moved,

M. Harris propose,

That, the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario,

(a) condemns the Government of Canada for cutting, by $4.2 billion annually, base payments under the federal program that supports health care, the CHST, while provincial governments have increased health spending;

(b) urges the Government of Canada to repudiate the statement attributed to a spokesperson for the federal Finance Minister, the Hon. Paul Martin, that increasing health funding would be "just shovelling money into a hole that's going to open right back up again";

(c) urges the Government of Canada immediately to restore permanently the health funding that it has cut, and to assume its fair share of increased, ongoing funding to meet the health needs of our country's aging and growing population; and

(d) reminds the federal Minister of Health, the Hon. Allan Rock, that the sincerity of his commitment to medicare and the principles of the Canada Health Act would be best demonstrated, not by idle rhetoric and vague words, but by restoring the health funding he has cut.

After some time,

Après quelque temps,

Mrs. McLeod moved,

Mme McLeod propose,

That the motion be amended by deleting parts (a), (b) and (d), and substituting the following sections:

(a) condemns the Harris Government for its finger-pointing; blame-laying and complete failure to accept responsibility for the management of health care in the Province of Ontario;

(b) further condemns the Harris government for launching an irresponsible advertising attack that uses tax payer dollars for its own partisan purposes, when those dollars are needed to improve health care for Ontario residents, and for falsely advertising that the Harris government has a plan for health care when the government's own commissioner has said that the government has no vision for health care;

(d) demands the Harris government stop playing shell games with the health care budget figures; allocates all the currently available Federal funding immediately to health care, without reducing its commitment of Provincial dollars; and meets the commitment it made to actually increase the health care budget in 1999/00 by $1.6 billion, instead of increasing it by only $887 million;

and further be amended by adding the following sections:

(e) demands the Harris government make a clear commitment that any new Federal funding will be added to the commitment to increase health care spending to $22.78 billion by 2003/2004;

(f) demands the Harris government reverse the cuts to hospital budgets so that the chaos of overcrowded emergency rooms and cancelled surgeries can be addressed; build long term care beds rather than simply re-announcing them and adequately fund community care so that the entire budgets of the community care agencies are not going to support people who are being discharged early from hospital because of the lack of hospital beds and so that there are funds to meet the needs of the frail elderly population;

(g) demands the Harris government make an immediate commitment to move forward with primary care reform, to ensure that people can have access to care 24 hours a day; 7 days a week;

(h) demands the Mike Harris government make a commitment to providing health care for people close to home, rather than creating the crises that are forcing cancer patients to go to the United States for care;

(i) demands the Mike Harris government acknowledge the growing crisis in access to cancer care in chemotherapy and cancer surgery and take immediate steps to avert this crisis;

(j) demands the Mike Harris government take meaningful and immediate action to address the shortage of physicians which has led to a crisis in access to care in 100 communities across this Province;

(k) demands Mike Harris stop posturing as a defender of medicare when his government has been moving more and more to private health care and has been deliberately opening the door to for profit American companies; and

(l) demands that both the Federal government and the Provincial governments stop fighting about health care and start fighting for health care.

The debate continued, and after some time,

Ms. Lankin moved,

Mme Lankin propose,

That the amendment to the motion be amended by adding the following thereto,

And that the government of Ontario adopts the following four principles: A ban on Ralph Klein-style private, for-profit hospitals; a freeze on the delisting of health services; an end to the proliferation of private, for profit long-term care and home care and a tougher inspection system and stiffer penalties for independent health facilities.

The House then adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

À 18 h, la chambre a ensuite ajourné ses travaux.

le président

GARY CARR

Speaker

Sessional Papers Presented Pursuant to Standing Order 39(A):-

Documents Parlementaires Déposés Conformément à l'Article 39(A) du Règlement

Compendia:

Bill 55, An Act to make parents responsible for wrongful acts intentionally committed by their children (No. 93).

Standing Committee on Public Accounts Annual Report 1998 / Rapport Annuel 1998.