Ontario politicians head into busy season

With campaign on horizon, Wynne’s Liberals have labour, policing, drugs on the agenda

Summer is not just over for students — MPPs will be back at their desks too.

With a provincial election exactly nine months away, the penultimate session of the legislature before the campaign promises to be a hot one.

Starting Monday, politicians will be busy debating labour changes — including the push toward a $15 minimum wage — policing reforms, the new pharmacare program, electricity pricing and a slew of other issues. Premier Kathleen Wynne, who trails Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in polls, insisted Wednesday that boosting her own political fortunes is not a priority this fall.

“It’s not about my personal popularity,” Wynne told CBC Radio’s Matt Galloway on Metro Morning.

“It’s about whether kids have access to education. It’s about whether seniors are getting the care that they need.

“It’s about . . . starting in January, every child from 0 to their 25th birthday will have access to free medication.”

Speaking to reporters later in the day at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, where she announced plans to revamp the school curriculum, Wynne heralded the importance of labour laws that will raise the $11.40an-hour minimum wage to $14 in January and $15 in 2019.

At a caucus retreat in Chatham, Ont., Horwath said “Kathleen Wynne has let people down — she’s been showing people that she’s in it for herself and her party.”

Tory deputy leader Steve Clark said his party “will be hitting the ground running in the legislature next week, holding the government accountable for Ontario’s hydro crisis, cuts to front-line health care services, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs.”