TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is proroguing the legislature so that her government can deliver a new throne speech Monday, pressing the reset button to outline a new set of priorities less than two years away from the next provincial election.
Wynne's announcement Thursday came just days after her Liberal party lost a long-held seat in a Toronto byelection. The premier's personal approval ratings have also hit an all-time low.
A new throne speech allows the government to lay out a road map for the plan that will take them into the 2018 provincial election, said Genevieve Tellier, a professor at the University of Ottawa's school of public policy.
"Especially considering the result of the byelection last week, where it seemed that the government took stock (that), 'There's something going on out there...so we need to make a stronger stance and maybe present also a more coherent platform,"' said Tellier.
Wynne said after the byelection loss in Scarborough-Rouge River that the result gave her "cause for reflection."
"We heard at the door that hydro rates are increasingly challenging for people," she said in a statement. "I understand, as do my ministers, that the government needs to focus on helping people with their everyday expenses."
Wynne said Wednesday when asked about her upcoming legislative priorities that economic growth and job creation will continue to be a focus and that the government needs to find a way to address high electricity rates.
Major pieces of legislation for her government's previous priorities have already been passed, including ones to enable a cap-and-trade system and the partial sale of Hydro One.
The legislature had already been set to return on Monday, so no sitting days are being lost. All government bills are being kept active, including election finance reforms, but it's not yet clear what will happen to private members' bills.
Prorogation can be a standard tool for governments, but former prime minister Stephen Harper sparked vigorous debate after he prorogued in late 2008, when his minority government faced the spectre of being unseated by an opposition coalition. And in 2012, Dalton McGuinty abruptly announced a plan to resign as Ontario premier and prorogued the legislature amid increasing criticism over the costly decision to cancel two gas plants.
Though prorogation at a government's mid-point is not unusual, it appears to have come as a surprise even to some cabinet ministers. Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle told Thunder Bay media outlet tbnewswatch.com that the prorogation was news to him.
