Assemblée législative de l'Ontario

Tuesday
December 21, 1999

Mardi
21 décembre 1999

Prayers

1:30 P.M.

Prières

13 H 30

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 44, An Act to amend the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act to prohibit partisan highway signs. Mr. Gravelle.

Projet de loi 44, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l'aménagement des voies publiques et des transports en commun de façon à interdire les panneaux routiers à caractère politique. M. Gravelle.

Bill 45, An Act to provide for affordable housing on the Toronto waterfront and on the site of the XXIX Summer Olympics. Mr. Hampton.

Projet de loi 45, Loi assurant la création de logements à prix abordable dans le secteur riverain de Toronto et sur l'emplacement des XXIX^e Jeux olympiques d'été. M. Hampton.

Bill 46, Fairness for Taxpayers Bill The more days in the House for the Premier and Fewer Cheap Photo Ops Act. Mr. Phillips.

Bill 47, An Act to provide for the recognition of the long service of mine rescue personnel. Ms. Martel.

Projet de loi 47, Loi prévoyant la reconnaissance des longs états de service du personnel de sauvetage dans les mines. M^me Martel.

On motion by Mr. Sterling, Bill 48, An Act to authorize the payment of certain amounts for the Public Service for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2000 was introduced and read the first time on the following division:-

Sur la motion de M. Sterling, le projet de loi 48, Loi autorisant le paiement de certaines sommes destinées à la fonction publique pour l'exercice se terminant le 31 mars 2000 est présenté et lu une première fois à la suite du vote suivant:-

AYES / POUR - 55

Arnott

Hodgson

Runciman

Baird

Hudak

Sampson

Barrett

Jackson

Skarica

Beaubien

Johns

Snobelen

Chudleigh

Johnson

Spina

Clark

Kells

Sterling

Clement

Klees

Stewart

Coburn

Marland

Stockwell

Cunningham

Martiniuk

Tascona

DeFaria

Maves

Tilson

Dunlop

Mazzilli

Tsubouchi

Ecker

Molinari

Turnbull

Elliott

Munro

Wettlaufer

Flaherty

Murdoch

Wilson

Galt

Mushinski

Witmer

Gill

Newman

Wood

Guzzo

O'Toole

Young

Hardeman

Ouellette

Harris

Palladini

NAYS / CONTRE - 29

Agostino

Curling

McGuinty

Bartolucci

Di Cocco

McLeod

Bountrogianni

Dombrowsky

Parsons

Boyer

Duncan

Patten

Bradley

Gerretsen

Peters

Brown

Gravelle

Phillips

Caplan

Hoy

Pupatello

Cleary

Kwinter

Sergio

Colle

Lalonde

Smitherman

Conway

Levac

Motions

Motions

On motion by Mr. Sterling,

Sur la motion de M. Sterling,

Ordered, That, pursuant to Standing Order 9(c)(ii), the House shall meet from 6:45 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday, December 21, 1999, for the purpose of considering government business.

Deferred Votes

Votes différés

The deferred vote on the motion for Second Reading of Bill 39, An Act respecting the University of Ottawa Heart Institute was carried on the following division:-

La motion portant deuxième lecture du projet de loi 39, Loi concernant l'Institut de cardiologie de l'Université d'Ottawa, mise aux voix sur le vote différé, est adoptée par le vote suivant:-

AYES / POUR - 93

Agostino

Gerretsen

Mushinski

Arnott

Gill

Newman

Baird

Gravelle

O'Toole

Barrett

Guzzo

Ouellette

Bartolucci

Hampton

Palladini

Beaubien

Hardeman

Parsons

Bountrogianni

Harris

Patten

Boyer

Hodgson

Peters

Bradley

Hoy

Phillips

Brown

Hudak

Pupatello

Caplan

Jackson

Ramsay

Christopherson

Johns

Runciman

Chudleigh

Johnson

Ruprecht

Churley

Kells

Sampson

Clark

Klees

Sergio

Cleary

Kormos

Skarica

Clement

Kwinter

Smitherman

Coburn

Lalonde

Snobelen

Colle

Lankin

Spina

Conway

Levac

Sterling

Cunningham

Marchese

Stewart

Curling

Marland

Stockwell

AYES / POUR - Continued

DeFaria

Martel

Tascona

Di Cocco

Martiniuk

Tilson

Dombrowsky

Maves

Tsubouchi

Duncan

Mazzilli

Turnbull

Dunlop

McGuinty

Wettlaufer

Ecker

McLeod

Wilson

Elliott

Molinari

Witmer

Flaherty

Munro

Wood

Galt

Murdoch

Young

NAYS / CONTRE - 0

And the Bill was accordingly read the second time and Ordered for Third Reading.

En conséquence, ce projet de loi est lu une deuxième fois et Ordonné pour la troisième lecture.

Petitions

Pétitions

Petition relating to the Northern Health Travel Grant program (Sessional Paper No. P-1) Mr. Brown.

Petition relating to the Defence of Marriage (Sessional Paper No. P-7) Mr. Barrett.

Petition relating to Retroactive cap on revenue earned by medical laboratories and the protection of property rights (Sessional Paper No. P-28) Mr. Kwinter.

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) Mrs. Mushinski.

Petition relating to Mater's Mortgages investors against the Government of Ontario (Sessional Paper No. P-48) Mr. Bradley.

Petition relating to the Protection of Bronte Creek Provincial Park and Bronte Creek Valley (Sessional Paper No. P-49) Mr. Ramsay.

Petitions relating to the Rejection of the nomination of Gord Miller as Environmental Commissioner (Sessional Paper No. P-50) Ms. Churley and Ms. Martel.

Petition relating to Closing of MacKelcan Road in the Region of Sudbury (Sessional Paper No. P-51) Mr. Bartolucci.

Petition relating to Proposed routing of Highway 407 east of Brock Road to Highways 115/35 (Sessional Paper No. P-52) Mr. O'Toole.

Orders of the Day

Ordre du Jour

Mr. Sterling moved,

M. Sterling propose,

That, an humble Address be presented to the Lieutenant Governor in Council as follows:-

To the Lieutenant Governor in Council:-

We, Her Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, now assembled, request the appointment of Gord Miller as the Environmental Commissioner for the Province of Ontario as provided in section 49 of the Environmental Bill of Rights Act, to hold office under the terms and conditions of the said act, and that the address be engrossed and presented to the Lieutenant Governor in Council by the Speaker.

After some time, pursuant to Standing Order 9(a), the motion for adjournment of the debate was deemed to have been made and carried.

Après quelque temps, conformément à l'article 9(a) du Règlement, la motion d'ajournement du débat est réputée avoir été proposée et adoptée.

At 6:00 p.m., the question "That this House do now adjourn" was deemed to have been proposed pursuant to Standing Order 37(b).

À 18 h, la motion portant «Que la présente Assemblée ajourne les débats maintenant» est réputée avoir été proposée conformément à l'article 37(b) du Règlement.

After one matter was considered, the question was deemed to have been adopted.

Après l'étude d'une question, la motion d'ajournement des débats est réputée avoir été adoptée.

The House then adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

À 18 h 10, la chambre a ensuite ajourné ses travaux.

6:45 P.M.

18 H 45

Orders of the Day

Ordre du Jour

The Order of the Day for resuming the adjourned debate on Government Notice of Motion No. 30 having been read,

À l'appel de l'ordre du jour concernant la suite du débat ajourné sur l'avis de motion numéro 30 émanant du gouvernement,

On a point of order raised by the member for Windsor-St.Clair (Mr. Duncan), the Speaker recessed the House for 10 minutes.

On his return, the Speaker delivered the following ruling:-

The House Leaders for the Official Opposition and the Third Party have raised a point of order, seeking my guidance on the question of the ability of this House to consider Government Notice of Motion number 30 -- relating to the appointment of the Environmental Commissioner for Ontario -- during both this afternoon's and this evening's Sessional days. The Government House Leader, the Deputy Government House Leader and the Member for Beaches-East York also made submissions. I thank all the members for their comments.

This House is meeting tonight as a result of a motion moved by Mr. Sterling during Routine Proceedings earlier today, and passed by the House, which stated:

"That, pursuant to Standing Order 9(c)(ii), the House shall meet from 6:45 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday, December 21, 1999, for the purpose of considering government business."

Standing Order 9, which places the conditions on the business that can be considered during an evening meeting such as tonight's, states in part: "Evening meetings held under sub-clauses (i) or (ii) shall be limited to the consideration of government Orders or private members' public business or both, according to the terms of the motion, but no government bill shall be called on more than one Sessional day during a single sitting day without unanimous consent."

The motion authorizing tonight's meeting clearly specified the House would consider government business, and as a result Government Notice of Motion number 30 has been called.

In my view, this order is properly before the House at this time and may be considered. The limitation in Standing Order 9 on considering the same business on both an afternoon and an evening sessional day explicitly applies only to government bills, as the Standing Order itself states, and not to any other type of government business.

The House Leader for the Official Opposition and for the Third Party referred to my ruling last Thursday. That ruling spoke to the circumstances surrounding the placement in the Standing Orders in 1997 of provisions for evening sittings. Such evening sittings, I found, were conditioned upon a clear undertaking, enshrined in Standing Order 46(e), that no bill may be both debated and time-allocated on the same calendar day.

That ruling was based on the finding that the House accepted that no piece of legislation should make its way through the legislative process faster after those changes than it could have before the changes. I was comfortable reviewing the rationale for putting Standing Order 46(e) in the Standing Orders in 1997, since the Standing Orders otherwise provided no clear guidance.

In Standing Order 9, however, the specific exclusion of every other type of business, except government bills, can only logically mean that every other type of business is not excluded. There is a distinct procedural difference between the prohibition against debating and time-allocating a bill on the same calendar day, on the one hand, and debating a substantive government motion on two sessional days on the same calendar day. I accept the view of the opposition House Leaders that these two situations seem thematically similar. However, they are procedurally different and each situation is differently provided for in our Standing Orders.

Debate was resumed on Government Notice of Motion Number 30 as follows:-

Le débat reprend sur l'avis de motion numéro 30 émanant du gouvernement comme suit:-

That, an humble Address be presented to the Lieutenant Governor in Council as follows:-

To the Lieutenant Governor in Council:-

We, Her Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, now assembled, request the appointment of Gord Miller as the Environmental Commissioner for the Province of Ontario as provided in section 49 of the Environmental Bill of Rights Act, to hold office under the terms and conditions of the said act, and that the address be engrossed and presented to the Lieutenant Governor in Council by the Speaker.

After some time, pursuant to Standing Order 9(a), the motion for adjournment of the debate was deemed to have been made and carried.

Après quelque temps, conformément à l'article 9(a) du Règlement, la motion d'ajournement du débat est réputée avoir été proposée et adoptée.

The House then adjourned at 12:00 midnight.

À minuit, 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

Education Quality and Accountability Office / Office de la qualité et de la responsabilité en éducation, Annual Report 1998-1999 (No. 58).

Ontario Government Business Plans 1999-00 as well as the 1998-99 Annual Report for each of the following ministries: Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Attorney General; Children's Secretariat; Citizenship, Culture and Recreation, Ontario Women's Directorate, Ontario Senior's Directorate; Community and Social Services; Consumer and Commercial Relations; Correctional Services; Economic Development and Trade; Education; Energy, Science and Technology; Environment; Finance; Francophone Affairs; Health and Long-Term Care; Intergovernmental Affairs; Labour; Management Board Secretariat; Municipal Affairs and Housing; Natural Resources; Northern Development and Mines; Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat; Solicitor General; Tourism; Training, Colleges and Universities; Transportation (No. 56).

Questions Answered (See Sessional Paper No. 5):-

Final Answers to Question Numbers: 1, 2, 3.

Responses To Petitions

Réponses Aux Pétitions

Petition relating to Effluents coming from Commercial Alcohols Inc. in Chatham-Kent (Sessional Paper No. P-6):

(Tabled December 6, 1999) Mr. Hoy.

Petition relating to The Truth About Ipperwash Act (Sessional Paper No. P-23):

(Tabled November 17, 22, 25, 1999) Mr. Phillips.

Petition relating to the Introduction of predatory gas pricing legislation (Sessional Paper No. P-24):

(Tabled November 22, 23, 24, 1999) Mr. Bartolucci.

Petition relating to the Property owner's right to approve or disapprove of a permanent structure that may be erected on the easement of their property (Sessional Paper No. P-26):

(Tabled November 22, 1999) Mr. Gravelle.

Petition relating to Rescinding Ontario Works legislation and halting Ontario Works programs (Sessional Paper No. P-33)

(Tabled November 29, 1999) Mr. Christopherson.