Local cabinet ministers can make difference to the region
When Ontario’s NDP government was considering casino gambling in the 1990s, the cabinet and caucus were utterly divided.
The original plan was to pilot three projects. But many cabinet members didn’t want to do that. Many didn’t want any casino gambling.
If you don’t want to try it in other areas, OK, Windsor-Riverside MPP and cabinet minister Dave Cooke argued. But let me do it in Windsor. Premier Bob Rae agreed to give it a shot.
So the city got what became one of its premier attractions, employing more than 2,300 people and paying the city millions of dollars at year for hosting it. When the former Green Giant in Tecumseh closed in 1994, Ontario’s minister of agriculture said there was nothing the government could do. Then Cooke’s constituency assistant found a buyer, John Omstead. But Omstead needed a loan guarantee. He got it, and the plant continued operating, saving more than 220 jobs and a lucrative source of tax revenue for the town.
Without a cabinet minister, says Cooke, “you wouldn’t have a constituency assistant that would be able to say, ‘I got a buyer’ and then have the minister of agriculture pay attention. If you’ve got a cabinet minister and their staff, you can do some pretty remarkable things when there’s a crisis.”
The provincial election is down to the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives, and they’re tied in popular support. Windsor and Essex County have three NDP incumbents, who are likely to be re-elected. They were third-party members. But if the NDP wins Thursday and forms the next government, they will be government members. And “there’s more than a chance” that some will become cabinet ministers, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said here last week. “I’m not going to make assumptions about what people might decide,” Horwath said. “I’m going to give people the respect of letting them have their say.” But governments look for regional representation when they form their cabinets, and “it’s something I absolutely will be looking at,” she said.
A “voice at the table” has been an issue here since 2014, when Windsor voted out Liberal cabinet minister Teresa Piruzza. A year later, the city and county elected three NDP MPs, and Canada elected a Liberal government. That left this region with no senior government members. “A political wasteland,” Mayor Drew Dilkens called this region. Cooke, a senior NDP MPP when the party won a majority government in 1990, became minister of municipal affairs, then minister of education, a high-profile post. Windsor received a long list of government investments when Cooke was at the table — the casino, art gallery, Malden Park Continuing Care Centre, cancer centre, courthouse, libraries and Tecumseh arena. The government also contributed to the restoration of the Capitol Theatre and the establishment of Chrysler’s automotive research centre at the University of Windsor. When the Liberals won a majority in 2003, WindsorTecumseh MPP Dwight Duncan was appointed minister of energy and went on to become minister of finance, the top post, then deputy premier. WindsorWest MPP Sandra Pupatello was appointed minister of community and social services, then minister of education and finally, minister of economic development and trade.
With two cabinet ministers, the University of Windsor received its new engineering school and a satellite medical school, which Duncan had championed when he was in opposition. The city received the most infrastructure funding per capita, when matched with federal funding, and money for the Red Bull air races. The biggest prize was the $1.4-billion Herb Gray Parkway. It’s not just the largesse a riding gets, said Cooke. It’s all kinds of influence.
In 2013, Cancer Care Ontario told Windsor Regional Hospital it could no longer perform thoracic cancer surgery and patients would have to travel to London. But eight months later, the decision was reversed. Windsor-West MPP Piruzza was at the cabinet table as minister of children and youth services at the time. When Cooke retired from politics and was on the board of the Local Health Integration Network, which oversees local health care, he called Piruzza regularly when problems arose. “Her staff ran interference to get things solved all the time for us,” he said. “Their staff become the point person. And if the staff can’t sort it out, then the minister goes and talks to his colleague or her colleague and says, ‘I need this.’ ”
Ultimately, cabinet also steers the government.
“When a bill comes forward to be discussed in cabinet, and there are different effects on different regions of the province, of course it’s important to have regional representation in cabinet and not just Toronto’s views to make sure that there are regional considerations,” said Cooke.
The new premier will decide the new cabinet, but if the NDP forms the next government, “we have some solid commitments to Windsor and Essex County,” said Windsor West incumbent Lisa Gretzky, citing promises to open 80 unused beds at HotelDieu Grace Healthcare, finish twinning Highway 3 and include Windsor in the environmental assessment for high-speed rail. “We would actually follow through on those commitments.”
And if the staff can’t sort it out, then the minister goes and talks to his colleague or her colleague and says, ‘I need this.’