Wynne to face House after just one week
New premier, cabinet to be sworn in on Feb. 11, reopen House on Feb. 18
TORONTO • Ontario will get its 25th premier and a brand new cabinet on Feb. 11, just a week before the legislature is set to reopen.
But premier- designate Kathleen Wynne was tightlipped Thursday about what that new government will look like once Premier Dalton McGuinty officially resigns.
She wouldn’t say who would be added or dropped from the front benches as the governing Liberals get ready to face two feisty opposition parties in a minority parliament.
“You know what, stay tuned. We’re just in the process of putting that together,” she said after meeting Thursday with McGuinty and Lt.Gov. David Onley.
“What you’ll see is a strong cabinet, a strong government because … I know the times call for a firm hand and that is exactly what we’re going to provide.”
The meeting with Onley kick-started the process of formally transferring power from McGuinty to Wynne, who won the Liberal leadership on Saturday. Ontario’s viceregal representative asked Wynne to form a government and announced the date for her to be sworn in with her new cabinet.
Wynne has said there’s room for all the leadership candidates around the cabinet table.
But those who threw their support behind her at the convention could get plum jobs.
Former banker Charles Sousa and celebrated humanitarian Eric Hoskins are both sitting MPPs with cabinet experience. The other candidate, Gerard Kennedy, doesn’t have a seat. Harinder Takhar, another former minister who supported runner-up Sandra Pupatello, could stay on as well if Wynne lives up to her promise.
The new cabinet will have just seven days to prepare a throne speech for the opening of the legislature, then finish putting together a budget before the fiscal year ends Mar. 31.
Wynne promised to “hit the ground running,” eliminating the $12-billion deficit by 201718 while addressing social issues like affordable housing and helping welfare recipients find jobs.
“It is obviously critical that we tackle the deficit and we get to the point where we can be paying down the debt,” she said.
As well, Wynne said Thursday that the NDP’s demand for a public inquiry into the decision to cancel power plants in Oakville and Mississauga would cost too much. It has already cost Ontario taxpayers at least $230 million to scrap the two gas-fired generating stations, and a government facing an $11.9-billion deficit has to be careful how it spends its money, added Wynne.
“To spend millions of dollars on a public inquiry, that’s not something that I would like to do,” she told reporters.
Wynne has not ruled out a call from the Progressive Conservatives to reform a legislative committee to investigate the decisions to cancel the gas plants, which the opposition parties say were motivated solely by a desire to save Liberal seats in the suburbs west of Toronto.
The committee was shut down last fall just hours before it was to begin hearings when McGuinty announced he was resigning and prorogued the legislature until the Liberals picked a new leader. The Tories and New Democrats are convinced the government has not released all the documentation on the cancelled energy projects, even though it put out tens of thousands of pages in two separate packages last fall under a Speaker’s order.
Meanwhile, Wynne says she doesn’t want to move into the Liberal-owned house in Toronto purchased for McGuinty, who has said he plans to keep his seat of Ottawa South until the next election.
The premier-to-be is expected to continue living in the basement apartment she shares with her partner Jane Rounthwaite while their new home is under renovation.
“I’m actually going to be living in my riding,” said Wynne, 59, who represents the Toronto seat of Don Valley West.
“As far as I know, they’ve told me I can’t drive, but they haven’t told me I have to leave my house.
“Once it’s renovated and I can actually move in, then I’m going to stay in my house.”
Wynne, who’s barely taken a break since her leadership victory, said giving up the car keys will be the biggest adjustment for her personally.
“I’ve been driving since I was 19 years old, and you can all calculate how many years that is,” Wynne joked.