By: Rob Ferguson
The fiasco over eco fees cost Environment Minister John Gerretsen his job as Premier Dalton McGuinty shuffled his cabinet following a summer of stumbles.
The veteran MPP from Kingston was demoted to the consumer services ministry – usually reserved for newcomers – and replaced by Revenue Minister John Wilkinson, tasked with devising a new recycling plan by October 18.
“You know, life is a learning experience,” said Gerretsen, now in charge of bringing mixed martial arts to Ontario after the government reversed its position last weekend on allowing the no-holds-barred fighting matches.
McGuinty moved six ministers and created two posts for the former mayors of Ottawa and Winnipeg, Bob Chiarelli and Glen Murray. The shuffle boosted his cabinet to 28 members as the province fights an unemployment rate of 8.5 per cent.
It’s an attempt by the government to regroup before the fall session of the Legislature begins September 13 – just one year shy of the next provincial election campaign.
“It’s been said that in days of old, after a ship had been tossed about on the open seas in the storm, you take advantage of the first clearing to read the stars, get your bearings, and regain your course,” McGuinty told reporters in a voice made raspy by a summer cold.
“You might say we’re doing that today.”
Other moves saw Energy Minister Brad Duguid stripped of the Infrastructure portfolio, which was handed to Chiarelli. The premier wants Duguid to concentrate on limiting the political fallout of rising electricity prices – a topic of frequent attack by opposition parties.
“With prices going up…it’s become a full-time job and it needs full-time attention,” said one government source.
Duguid said “strategic investments” have been necessary to boost renewable sources of energy and close heavily polluting coal-fired power plants.
“There’s a price to that,” added Duguid, who is also under pressure for missteps with a solar subsidy for rural generators, glitches in hydro bills and new price breaks for large industries.
After controversy over a poorly explained policing rule for the G20 summit security zone in June, Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci was bumped to the municipal affairs and housing ministry run by Jim Bradley, who replaces him in a swap.
The move to environment is a promotion for Wilkinson, a financial planner credited with successfully launching the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax on July 1.
He avoided a consumer backlash like the one that greeted eco fees of up to $6.66 on potentially toxic household products when they were introduced July 1 with little or no warning to consumers, and scrapped less than three weeks later.
“We’re going to make sure we have a program that people understand,” pledged Wilkinson, who spent months selling the HST.
That means consumers should keep an eye on their wallets, warned Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill).
“If Ontarians think that they’re not going to see an eco tax come back to bite them they’re perfectly wrong, because that’s what Wilkinson’s specialty is.”
It’s ironic that Gerretsen will be in charge of consumer protection given the way the “bungled” launch of eco fees infuriated shoppers, said New Democrat MPP Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina).
“I’m worried.”
McGuinty resurrected his inner cabinet—seven ministers who meet with the premier to chart the government’s agenda as the priorities and planning committee.
But that move is raising eyebrows as insiders note that the only Toronto representative is Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne. There are no ministers from the GTA, but two from each of London and Windsor.
Replacing Wilkinson at revenue is Consumer Services Minister Sophia Aggelonitis, who will also have responsibility for seniors.
Murray, the victor in a Toronto Centre by-election replacing veteran MPP George Smitherman, becomes research and innovation minister, a job that had been under Training, Colleges and Universities Minister John Milloy.