Productive spring session ends 38th Parliament Ontario is stronger in 2007
The Ontario Legislature sat for some 40 sessional days in the spring of 2007 to wind up the 38th Parliament of Ontario. Barring anything unforeseen, the Ontario Legislature will next reconvene after the October 10 general election.
It was a productive session, with seven new government bills introduced, and a total of 14 government bills passing into law. Among them:
The 2007 Ontario Budget introduced the second balanced budget in a row after Ontario had worked its way through the inherited $5.5 billion deficit left by the Eves PC government in 2003. The budget also introduced a new Ontario Child Benefit allowance far more comprehensive and generous than anything that had existed before;
The Ministry of Health introduced a new Long Term Care Homes Act, bringing the regulation of long term care homes and the standards governing them into the 21st century;
The environment was front and centre in the Ontario Legislature, with the Safeguarding and Sustaining Ontario’s Water Act and the new Endangered Species Act protecting Ontario's wild life, nd further implementing recommendations from the Walkerton Inquiry to keep Ontario's drinking water safe;
Roads are safer with the passage of the Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act. Laws governing street racing in Ontario are now the toughest in North America;
School safety and progressive school discipline was further enhanced with Bill 212, the Education Amendment Act.
Other bills passed established a provincial advocate for children and youth; simplified the corporate tax system in Ontario; enhanced workplace safety for fire fighters, made Ontario's electoral system more secure and made amendments to a variety of other acts.