After 12 days at Queen’s Park, both of Thunder Bay’s MPPs say they don’t see the Liberal minority government falling to a non-confidence vote any time soon.
“I think it's early days when it comes to the minority Parliament we are in now,” said Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan). “I think quite likely we’re going to see one party or the other support us in the near-term. I think both the opposition parties realize nobody wants another election.”
With a municipal, federal and provincial election all in the last year, Mauro said nobody wants to head back to the polls anytime soon.
“We will be supported by one party or another, I would expect. Although, you never know for sure,” he said.
While working in a minority situation is a challenge, Michael Gravelle (Lib., Thunder Bay-Superior North) said the signal all the provincial parties received in October’s election was people expect them to work together.
He was particularly pleased to see the 17 New Democrat MPPs support the Liberal’s throne speech.
“I think they are seeing real opportunities for cooperation between our party and their party,” he said. “That’s our goal as well, to find ways to work together.”
Thursday was the last day of the fall session of the Legislature and while it was just 12 days, both MPPs said they accomplished a fair amount of work.
Gravelle said they brought the throne speech forward, which included initiatives like the home renovation tax credit, 30 per cent tuition grant for post-secondary students and anti-bullying legislation.
“It was a short session, but I think it was a reasonably effective one,” he said.
Along with the throne speech, the Liberals also released the fall economic statement. Mauro said the real defining document will be the budget.
The budget will be the focus for the Liberals in the New Year, said Gravelle, adding it will be a difficult budget.
“We know the fiscal realities in the province are challenging,” he said.
“We’re in a deficit situation. We’re obviously going to be dealing with that deficit and the impacts of what might happen in Europe can make that even more difficult for us,” said Mauro.
