Doug Ford holding midnight meeting to try to slash Toronto city council
Premier Doug Ford's government will be holding a midnight meeting this Monday after a failed attempt to finally cut the size of Toronto city council.
The Ontario government met for an uncommon weekend sitting this morning to discuss Bill 31, coined the Efficient Local Government Act, brought forward by the Ford administration to expedite the slashing of councillors to 25 from 47.
Today’s proceedings are underway. Green Party ldr Mike Schreiner has already said he won’t give PCs unanimous consent to pass Bill 31. There’s not enough time for an order-in-council to bring MPPs back Sunday but it could happen 12:01am Monday #onpoli pic.twitter.com/gmsR15GCZe
— Sabrina Nanji (@sabrinananji) September 15, 2018
Opposition MPPs rejected the call to support the legislation within an hour, with the Green Party, Liberals, and NDP all petitioning to delay the law's passing.
NDP is arguing Bill 31 is out of order, because it's too similar to Bill 5, saying you can't table a Bill about the same thing that quickly, because it's against t he rules. #OnPoli
— Momin Qureshi (@Momin680NEWS) September 15, 2018
The PC saw no alternative but to ask the house to reconvene at 12:01 a.m. this Monday morning to continue the debate.
Meanwhile, activists from the Council of Canadians banded outside of Queen's Park during today's meeting today gathering signatures in protest of Ford's use of the notwithstanding clause.
The first iteration of this bill, Bill 5, has already been struck down by an Ontario Superior Court judge, who has said that it violates the charter rights of both candidates and voters in Toronto's upcoming municipal election.
The government views the finalization of city council cuts as urgent as any further delay would likely cause the election to be postponed.
Doug Ford
