Premier Ford Unveils New Cabinet


Yesterday, Premier Ford unveiled his new cabinet following his government’s electoral victory at the end of February. The cabinet is largely the same as its pre-election make-up, with some notable changes including the appointment of a new Minister and Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. 

AMO is writing letters to these select Ministers to offer congratulations and advance AMO’s top advocacy priorities:

  • Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Graydon Smith, Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on the urgent need to: 
    • Establish a more sustainable municipal-fiscal framework
    • Secure stimulus to enable municipalities to emerge stronger from trade disruptions and tariffs
    • Develop an ‘all of government’ plan to tackle homelessness, and 
    • Implement municipal codes of conduct.
       
  • Lisa Thompson, Minister of Rural Affairs on top rural municipal advocacy priorities including their access to housing-enabling infrastructure funding, homelessness, improving access to primary and hospital care, and supporting energy, broadband and cellular infrastructure expansion.
     
  • Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade offering support and collaboration in response to trade disruptions, including on reviewing inter-provincial trade barriers, retooling supply chains, and leveraging local municipal economic development capacity.
     
  • Stephen Crawford, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement on the impact of international trade and tariff negotiations on municipal procurement and the need for provincial clarity on ‘Buy Canadian’ strategy in collaboration with our sector.
     
  • Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Mines on continued collaboration in support of successful long-term electricity procurements, finalization of the provincial Integrated Energy Plan and Natural Gas Policy, and clarity on the province’s broadband implementation plan following Ontario’s Starlink cancellation.
     
  • Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health on the implementation of the Primary Care Action Plan, aligning public health standards to funding levels, making the community paramedic program permanent, and building a continuum of community mental health and addictions services to help tackle the root causes homelessness.
     
  • Natalia Kusendova-Bashta, Minister of Long-Term Care on ensuring provincial operating grants better reflect real costs of operating municipal long-term care homes and reviewing proposed amendments to the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.
     
  • Doug Downey, Attorney General on the need for a third-party review of the provincial offenses system.
     
  • Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services on development of a new administrative funding model for municipal delivery of social services, improvements to income security to help address the homelessness crisis, and preparing for a potential surge of asylum seekers.
     
  • Paul Calandra, Minister of Education on advancing the extension and implementation of a renewed Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) bilateral agreement, and future planning for primary and secondary schools.

AMO will be engaging the Ministers of Finance and Infrastructure with a revised 2025 pre-budget submission. The submission will outline economic impacts of the ongoing trade war on municipalities. It will also call for stimulus investments in community housing and municipal infrastructure to help sustain Ontario’s construction sector and invest in critical community infrastructure. Lastly, it will re-affirm the continued importance of action on long-standing municipal priorities including infrastructure, reducing municipal subsidies for areas of provincial jurisdiction, and tackling the root causes of homelessness. 

Contact:

Policy
T 416.971.9856

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