Rare Queen’s Park Sittings

Ontario legislators will meet for a rare midnight session early Monday morning. The Progressive Conservative government made the announcement following an also-unusual sitting today as Premier Doug Ford’s Tories have been trying to push through a bill that would cut the size of Toronto’s city council.

The house leader says MPP’s will be back at Queen’s park at 12:01 AM Monday. They will sit for six hours beginning at that time. the PC’s continue their quest to push through the controversial Bill 31 after government attempts to pass it today with unanimous consent failed.

Bill 31 is called the efficient local government act which includes the not-with-standing clause. If passed it will be used for the first time in the province’s history. The bill would slash the number of Toronto councillors from 47 to 25 with just over a month until the municipal election.

The reason this is all happening earlier this week the new democratic party raised concerns that Bill 5, the initial bill to cut city council without the Not-With-Standing Clause and Bill 31 which includes it are too similar and can’t be debated or moved in the same legislative session. The speaker will now have to rule on whether or not he believes this is the case.

Today, the session lasted about 45 minutes.

Opposition MPP’s went on record with their petitions as a way to delay the passage of the bill which would reintroduce legislation that a superior court judge struck down saying it was unconstitutional and violated the charter of rights of candidates and voters in the upcoming election.

The house will be back at 12:01 Monday morning, it is unclear why that time was chosen.

There is a timeline with the municipal election fast approaching October 22nd.

A question from the media gallery was posed about what is more important, having the election or reducing the size of council and as you heard the deputy government house leader say just now, the plan is to accomplish both.

Following the debate on Monday, Premier Doug Ford will head off to Chatham for the annual plowing match.