Brown debuts as fall session starts at Queen’s Park

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It’s back to the legislature today for MPPs, including the newest one: Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown.

Brown has been leader of the Progressive Conservatives for a few months, but it was just at the beginning of September that the former MP for Barrie won a byelection in Simcoe North to become an MPP. He was sworn in as leader of the official opposition at Queen’s Park today, and he received the traditional standing ovation.

Brown let it be known in advance that he would be tackling his three priorities right away: education — he says the province has had enough time to find a deal with teachers; job growth, and the sale of hydro one. Here’s how he faced off against the premier this morning.

“It appears we’ve hit a nerve. Knocking on thousands of doors during the Simcoe North byelection, I was taken aback by countless stories of families worried about the fire sale of Hydro One. The public does not support the fire sale.”

“The Liberals should hit the pause button given the overwhelming public opposition. Mr. Speaker, how can the premier callously proceed with the sale, despite opposition in excess of 70%.”

Wynne’s response: “I’m not sure whether that was a new question, but Mr Speaker, the reality is that those investments that I am talking about, those investments in infrastructure, whether it’s roads or bridges Mr Speaker, or transit Mr Speaker, those are the investments that are driving the recovery that I was talking about.”

At a news conference NDP leader Andrea Horwath was asked if she was encouraged that Patrick Brown supported her party’s oppostion to selling hydro. She said she’s not confident because she said Conservatives are always in favour of privatization.

Brown though has said he will not be blindly partisan: he says he will also be supporting an NDP initiative on post traumatic stress disorder.

Next action in teachers dispute

The union representing public elementary school teachers in Ontario will outline phase three of its work-to-rule campaign.

Last week the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario met with the province, but contract talks have since broken off. The union that represents 76,000 teachers has not had a contract for over a year.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association have already reached tentative agreements.

Premier Wynne is hoping that the elementary teachers’ union will return to negotiations. “My hope would be that after the meeting that EFTO has today that they will be open to coming back and having a conversation about how we can move forward because the fundamentals of the agreement, or the offer that is in place, that they will be discussing today is the same as the fundamentals in the tentative agreements with OSSTF and OECTA so my prime concern is that kids be in school, that teachers and support staff be in school because that’s where I know they want to be.”

And NDP leader Andrea Horwath is also weighing in on the stalemate: “The government promised that be the end of the summer everything will be hunky-dory, that they had the whole summer to come to an agreement with the education workers of the province. We still see instability in our school system and that is completely unacceptable.”

Horwath says during this new session at Queen’s Park the NDP will also continue to campaign against the sale of Hydro One. The Liberals hope to raise $9 billion from selling 60 per cent of Hydro One and intend to use $4 billion of that to fund infrastructure and public transit projects.

Lisa Hepfner will have more on the return of Queen’s Park, and Scot Urquhart has the latest on the elementary school teachers, tonight on the Evening News at 6.