No review of OSPCA - for now

Sunday, November 21, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

People wanting a government review of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ authority have vowed to continue fighting despite losing a key resolution at Queen’s Park last week.

Proposed by Newmarket Aurora Tory MPP Frank Klees, the private member’s resolution calling for the review was defeated Thursday afternoon with 17 MPPs voting in favour and 24 opposed.

David Honey, a farmer and president of the Niagara Landowners’ Association, says “this is something that’s going to be continuing. We’re going to keep on putting the pressure on them because the OSPCA just has too many powers.”

Honey, who was in the Queen’s Park visitors’ gallery to hear the debate, says about the vote that the “Liberal government just stacked the cards.”

Klees says it’s an understatement to say he’s disappointed with the vote’s results. “It’s extremely frustrating when we had overwhelming evidence presented to the legislature for the need of a review and reform of this OSPCA structure.”

The Liberal MPPs all opposed the resolution because they were instructed on how to vote by the Premier’s office, Klees says. “I believe they allowed partisan and political motivation to override what is the right thing to do here.”

Spokespeople for Premier Dalton McGuinty didn’t return calls by the deadline for this posting.

Three Liberals were among the 17 MPPs who voted in favour of the review. 

“Attacking and condemning the OSPCA is not going to make it better for animals in the long run,” Eglinton-Lawrence MPP Mike Colle (Liberal) says in the legislature’s official transcript, Hansard. He called for ways of making animal protection “more meaningful, more comprehensive and more effective.”

Richmond Hill resident Sunny Reuter, who advocates for rural victims of the OSPCA, says instead of trying to convince the government of the need for the review people should focus their efforts on changing the party in power when the next election rolls around in October 2011.

Klees says the Conservatives have promised to review the OSPCA’s power and authority if they’re elected.

Honey says Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is in his riding and “I will ride on him until he does (do the review).”
 
More than 100 people from across Ontario were in the visitors’ gallery to hear the debate. Klees says it was the largest turnout of people in the gallery for any private member’s business in the 15 years he has been an MPP.

In contrast, just 41 MPPs, which is less than half of the legislature’s 107 members, were at Queen’s Park for the resolution’s one-hour debate and vote. Some MPPs only attended the vote.

Klees says the movement of private member’s business to Thursday afternoon from Thursday morning shows the disrespect Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government has for private members. He says most MPPs leave for their ridings by Thursday at noon to be available for constituency business on Fridays. And that’s why there weren’t many MPPs in the legislature during his resolution’s debate and vote. BF