Ontario throne speech highlights key Doug Ford campaign pledges

Premier Doug Ford’s new Conservative government has sketched a broad road map in laying out its legislative agenda in Thursday’s throne speech, emphasizing promises made during the spring election campaign.

Calling itself a “government for the people,” the Conservatives say the status quo must be challenged, old compromises rejected and change must be embraced.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Reduce gas prices, however, no exact details on how this will be accomplished.
• Lower hydro bills. No exact details were mentioned.
• Tax relief to parents, small businesses and working poor. No specific details were announced.
• Scrapping cap-and-trade and opposing other carbon tax schemes in all of their forms.
• Launching a Commission of Inquiry into the financial practices of government to identify ways to restore accountability and trust in Ontario’s public finances.
• Return Ontario to a balanced budget on a timetable that is responsible, modest and pragmatic. However, no exact timetable has been specified.
• Long-term stable funding for health care including 15,000 new long term care beds over the next five years and $3.8-billion investment in mental health and addictions, including supporting housing.
• Replacing “failed ideological experiments” in the classroom including scrapping ‘Discovery Math’ curricula and replacing the current sex-education curriculum
• Increasing supports for families and parents of children with autism
• Honouring the Canadian heroes of war in Afghanistan by building a new monument and creating a dedicated hotline to provide assistance to our military families in Canada
• Freeing Ontario’s Police Services from “onerous restrictions that treat those in uniform as subjects of suspicion and scorn,” by giving them the tools, support and resources to enforce the law and protect innocent families from the menace of drug, gun and gang related violence.
• Expand sale of beer and wine to convenience stores, grocery stores and big box stores

However, the speech made no mention of one issue the government had said would be one of its priorities for the rare summer sitting of the legislature: ending an ongoing strike at York University.

Ford nonetheless stressed those priorities in a statement Thursday, saying his government had received a “clear mandate” from voters.

“We are ending the deadlocked strike at York University so students can get back to school. We are striking the cap-and-trade carbon tax from the books. And we are cancelling unnecessary renewable energy projects to help lower your electricity bills,” he said.

In the statement, the Tories said the summer session will build on the work their government has already undertaken, such as steps to dismantle cap and trade and measures to curb government spending.

University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman said Ford, who led the party to a sweeping majority, is capitalizing on his momentum.

“Politically, I think what he’s doing is smart,” he said. “He feels the wind in his sails. He wants to keep it that way. This gives him an opportunity to get this attention now.”

Ford made good on a key campaign promise Wednesday, announcing the immediate retirement of the CEO of Hydro One and the resignation of the utility’s entire board of directors. He said the move would bring down electricity rates but struggled to explain how when asked repeatedly by reporters.

Watch the Throne Speech below.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report