Queen’s Park Highlights - April 30, 2010

1. Bill 242, the Early Learning Bill is Passed

On April 27, Bill 242 was introduced for its final vote in the Legislature.  It passed with Liberal and NDP MPPs voting in favour of the bill and PC MPPs voting against.  The bill will become law once it receives Royal Assent and a proclamation by the Lieutenant Governor.

The final vote on the bill gives the Ministry of Education the go-ahead to move forward with regulations and guidelines related to the Early Learning Program.  These will provide more detail and clarification about the program.

2. Minister responds to French-language Concerns about Early Learning Program

Last week, after the legislative committee completed its review of Bill 242, organizations representing francophone teachers, senior administrators, and school boards issued a letter outlining concerns about the Early Learning Program.

The group asked for more flexibility to accommodate existing francophone early years programs which in many cases involved half-day kindergarten with the balance of the school day and extended day programs being offered by third party child care providers.  Given the shortage of qualified francophone ECEs, the group is also asking for additional funds in order to offer salaries that will keep francophone ECEs from moving to English-language boards that may have the resources to offer higher compensation.

On April 26, NDP MPPs Rosario Marchese and France Gélinas asked Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky to respond to these concerns.  The Minister stated:

“Our commitment is to provide an integrated full-day learning experience for our earliest learners, and we are committed to doing that in both English and in French. We know that French-language boards have ordered their kindergarten programs differently, and they have been doing an excellent job. We are committed to continuing to work with them so that we ultimately have the integrated full-day learning program in both the English-language and French-language schools.”

3. PC Leader criticizes Early Learning Program for Full-time Teacher Model

On April 26, PC Leader Tim Hudak challenged the government for adopting the “expensive” full-time teacher model for the new Early Learning Program:

“The minister knows full well that parents told Dr. Pascal they preferred their children spending only half days with kindergarten teachers, other times with ECEs. An overwhelming majority told the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education the exact same thing. But Premier McGuinty tossed aside Dr. Pascal's recommendations and chose the most expensive option of putting kindergarten teachers in the class the entire day.

I ask the minister again: What makes Premier McGuinty so smart? Why is he so “much better at deciding what's best for our kids than moms and dads in the province of Ontario?”

Minister Dombrowsky replied:

“Our government has a record of consulting and working co-operatively with our partners in education and, as a result of that, we have delivered a plan that will support the earliest learners in our school system. We've certainly relied on Dr. Pascal and on educational leaders from around the world to provide us with support.

“I think it's important that the members on the other side of the House appreciate that we have jurisdictions from around the world looking at our early learning initiative to understand how we are doing it.”

4. PC Leader criticizes Early Learning Program for Lack of Half-day Option

In a supplementary question, Mr. Hudak pointed to the page of the Pascal report which anticipated parents having the option to enrol their children in an Early Learning Program for a half-day, full-day, or extended day.  He accused the government of ignoring the wishes of parents by forcing them to transfer their children to other schools if they don’t want to enrol their child full-time in an ELP class.

Minister Dombrowsky replied:

“Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Parents play a very integral role in determining what program they want for their child. When they go to register, if their school is providing full-day learning for their children, they can decide if they want to enrol them. If they do, they can decide if they want to have their child in the class for the full day or not. That has always been their choice.

“We are offering a full-day program. We know that you are opposed to the full-day learning initiative. We know you're opposed to it because it's costing money. We know you don't understand why it is so important to invest in our earliest learners…”

5. Government taken to Task over Lack of Consultation on Sex Education Curriculum

On April 26, PC Leader Tim Hudak positioned his party as representing the “moms and dads” in the province and chastised the government for deferring to the “experts” rather than parents:

“Sadly, when the minister talks about consulting, she is talking about so-called experts and elite insiders. We stand with moms and dads across the province of Ontario.

“We understand that Dalton McGuinty believes that he knows best what is best for our kids; we believe parents do.”

Minister Dombrowsky repeated that the government had consulted broadly, but the decision had been made to listen to those who have raised concerns and to extend the consultations.  She reiterated: “…We consulted 700 students. We received feedback from 2,400 individuals who provided us with their ideas on this curriculum. I can say that that is far more than we typically get when we review curriculum documents.”

On April 28, Kevin Costante, Deputy Minister of Education, issued a letter to education stakeholder organizations advising that the portion of the revised Health and Physical Education curriculum that focuses on human development and sexual health will be subject to further consultation and that an interim document with the balance of the revised curriculum for grades 1 to 8 will posted on the ministry website in June and used for the 2010-11 school year.  It will contain the human development and sexual health strands from the original 1998 curriculum document.

6. NDP MPP introduces Anti-Scab Legislation

On April 29, NDP MPP France Gélinas introduced Bill 45, the Labour Relations Amendment Act (Replacement Workers), 2010.  The purpose of the bill is to restore the provisions that banned replacement workers in legislation introduced in 1992 by the former NDP government and repealed in 1995 by the subsequent Conservative government.

During Question Period, Ms. Gélinas asked why the government “was so sheepish about bringing in a law that would ban replacement workers in this province?”  She pointed out that such law existed in both Quebec and British Columbia.

Labour Minister Peter Fonseca replied:

“Our government has done much to restore balance to labour relations in the province of Ontario, and the record speaks for itself. As I mentioned, in the past few years, approximately 97% of all negotiations have resulted in settlements without any work stoppages. In 2009, for example, 1,981 settlements were achieved in Ontario without strike or lockout.”

7. NDP MPP raises Concerns about Union and Corporate Donations

On April 29, during debate on the government’s bill that amends the province’s election law, NDP MPP Michael Prue raised concerns about the failure of the bill to ban political donations from unions and corporations:

“We know, if you look at some of the people who write books on this, that there is an undue influence by corporate Canada, by developers and by unions. There is that undue influence, to the point that provinces like Manitoba and Quebec and the federal government have banned this practice. We know that the city of Toronto, the largest municipality in the province, is banning this practice. But we have here a government in Ontario that doesn't want to look at that, that recognizes the inherent unfairness of the financial process around elections and just turns a blind eye to it and says absolutely nothing. It's fine by them. I guess that's because the cash is flowing in pretty well and they don't want to look out there and say, "Maybe that cash won't be there.”

For more information, check the website of the Ontario Legislature: www.ontla.on.ca.