Ford orders rare Saturday Legislature to speed up passing of Bill 31

Premier Doug Ford has ordered the Ontario Legislature to attend a rare weekend session in an attempt to speed up the passing of the new bill that will slash the size of Toronto City Council nearly in half ahead of the upcoming municipal election.

The move comes amid controversy over the introduction of Bill 31, Efficient Local Government Act 2018, which invokes Ford’s notwithstanding clause to slash the size of council.

According to an internal memo obtained by Global News, the House will return to Legislature at 1 pm on Saturday, September 15, and sit for part of the afternoon.

Ford says the provincial government is sitting in Legislature this weekend because his government is committed to ending the “political gridlock and dysfunction at Toronto City Hall.”

Our government will be sitting in the legislature this weekend because we’re committed to ending the political gridlock and dysfunction at Toronto City Hall. #onpoli https://t.co/rLzLJ5uLOM

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) September 14, 2018

This news came on the same day Toronto City Council voted to challenge the newly-amended bill in court.

“Rather than pausing and appealing, the province is pushing ahead now, including the extraordinary and unacceptable act of invoking the notwithstanding clause, overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the first time in the history of Ontario,” said Mayor John Tory.

“I firmly believe you don’t make a bad law better by overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

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