Law Times

Page 6 April 9, 2018 • lAw Times www.lawtimesnews.com Vote now and regret later? BY IAN HARVEY T he stage is set, the players cast, the curtain is weeks away, but the prologue to the June 7 gen- eral election has begun. In this production, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne casts herself as the prof ligate spender, desperately driving the province deeper in debt to get re- elected. Her antagonist, Progressive Con- servative Party of Ontario leader Doug Ford, is the populist buffoon, promising to reign in lavish spending and restore sanity. Poor NDP leader Andrea Howarth is caught in the crossfire, but she could still win the crowd with an inspired perfor- mance. The audience, eager for change, is wary of Ford, who is being painted by his enemies as a Trump-like disruptor. However, they also remain skeptical of the NDP, given Wynne's dramatic leap to the left. The narrative now turns on a theme of spend now and pay later or cut now and regret later. The provincial Liberals' record is bad enough, between gas plant scandals, eHealth debacles, hydro pricing, utility selloffs and more, but they've added a plot twist with Bill 31, Plan for Care and Op- portunity Act (Budget Mea- sures) 2018. This omnibus sets up the Liberals' election platform with generous spending on high-speed rail, pharmacare, health care, free daycare and something for every spe- cial interest group possible. There may even be a pony or two in there. The sub-plot also brings changes to some 47 other pieces of legislation, in- cluding the Law Society Act, Legal Aid Services Act, Police Services Act and So- licitors Act, though most are minor. The real plot conf lict is about the money. Provincial finance minister Charles Sousa proclaimed initially that the province has a $600-million surplus this year before tabling a $6.7-billion deficit election-focused budget. Not so fast. The auditor general and the Financial Accountability Office say the actual budget position is a $4.5-bil- lion deficit, not a surplus, obscured by some accounting special effects. Combined, that's an $11.2-billion deficit. There were palpable groans from the audience at hearing this in previews. Ford, entering stage right, teases the crowd, foreshad- owing to cut $8 billion in spending. That has already prompt- ed howls from critics who call it a major plot hole. The background notes, however, suggest a plethora of targets starting with the unplanned, unresearched and pie-in-the-sky promises of the bud- get, which may yield more than $5 bil- lion or $6 billion alone. If Ford is elected with a strong man- date, there are many sacred cows to cull from the herd such as merging the sepa- rate school and public school boards, saving an estimated $2 billion. Certainly, constitutional lawyers will be eager to see how that might play out, given the unlimited billable hours such a battle might generate. Targeting the bloated bureaucracies of the Local Health Integration Net- works might also cough up a billion. Then there are the sleepers such as TVO and TFO that get more than $100 million in government grants annually. Has anyone asked why it takes 35 people making more than $100,000 each and 400 others to put out a provincial TV broadcast?Why does it take 160 people — with 12 of them making the Sunshine List, including the CEO, who makes $331,000 — to run an entity that reaches a bigger (and mostly non-Ontario audi- ence) on its YouTube channel than its broadcast viewership, which is so small they don't even measure it? To be fair, no one knows how bad the books are until they take office and just how much will have to be cut and where. Just ask former premier Bob Rae. Ford won't show his hand, though, playing to the gallery with a wink, lest he open himself to attack ads as did his pre- decessors, John Tory and Tim Hudak, in the prequels to this production. And so the game is afoot. Let's see how the plot and plotters unravel the narrative as the players take the stage for the first act. LT uIan Harvey has been a journalist for more than 40 years, writing about a diverse range of issues including legal and political affairs. His email address is ianharvey@rogers.com. COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday ©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . Jacqueline D'Souza Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Modern parenting W hen the federal Liberal government recently released its gender-balanced budget, it was big news. It included a gender results framework and an entire section on addressing the gender wage gap, as well as more leave for families where both parents take time away from their jobs to care for their families. While one of the dominant themes of public dialogue has been around changing standards on gender relations at home and in the workplace, the law is still catching up in some areas when it comes to the evolving nature of modern families. (Many important strides were made in the All Families Are Equal Act, which helped clarify the legal status of parents in LGBTQ relationships or who use as- sisted reproduction.) Take an Ontario Superior Court case that was recently heard where two friends who have fostered a girl through Ontario's Chil- dren's Aid Society want to adopt the child but the Child and Family Services Act insists that there be a spousal relationship for adoptions. The case — brought by Marta Siemiarczuk, a lawyer with Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP in Ottawa (who, full disclosure, happens to be a Law Times columnist) — highlights issues and assumptions around how the law defines families. Last year, Natasha Bakht and Lynda Collins, friends who are both associate professors at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, an- nounced they had both been legally recognized as co-parents to a then-seven-year-old boy. Thanks to important advocacy work by the LGBTQ community and changing social norms (later parenting, mixed families, solo parents by choice and more), lawyers say there are important legal consequences to be considered, such as when parenting agreements are being developed. Julie Stanchieri of Stanchieri Family Law in Toronto says that in light of the All Families Are Equal Act, there are likely to be more platonic par- enting agreements. "It's obviously something that is getting to be more and more popular, and it's a really lovely idea," says Stanchieri. LT Queen's Park Ian Harvey

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