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Ontario legislature resumes sitting as PC caucus members have December deadline to decide if they'll run again

queens park
queens park

The provincial legislature will resume sitting Monday following a 19-week summer break. 

The return to Queen's Park comes during intense speculation that Premier Doug Ford will call an early election. The next fixed election date isn't until June 2026. 

However Ford has left the door open to calling one next year, giving his own caucus members a December deadline to decide if they will run again.

MPP Andrew Dowie says he is set to be acclaimed this Sunday as the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario candidate for Windsor-Tecumseh in the next general election.

He says he is looking forward to being on the ballot once more and would like to reach more constituents through door knocking.

"This is the same advance warning of nomination that I had last time. I'm grateful for that runway because it's important that I get out and meet as many people as possible."

The government is set to introduce a bill on Monday that would facilitate construction 24 hours a day, accelerate property acquisitions and require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

Dowie says the portion of the legislation regarding bike lanes is expected to have little impact on Windsor.

"We've only seen this happen a handful of times. Riverside Drive comes to mind. That was 27 years ago and there's negligible impact on the level of service. So this not something that really affects the City of Windsor, unless there was some sort of new proposal that, for example, Dougall, if you were to take a lane off of Dougall at rush hour, just imagine what that would look like."

Another piece of legislation expected in the coming weeks is the province's plan to deal with the ongoing overdose crisis.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones has said the legislation would result in the closure of 10 supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares.

The Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment model, or HART hub, was announced in August as a program to replace consumption sites, like SafePoint in Windsor.

The City of Windsor submitted an application, and Ontario's associate minister of mental health and addictions Michael Tibollo said a review process was expected to begin soon. 

Dowie says he continues to advocate for the city.

"I've been a strong proponent of Windsor's application from the time that it was announced that Windsor was going to pursue. So that dialogue will continue and there's no doubt in my mind that a strong case is being made for Windsor's HART hub."

When visiting Windsor last month, Tibollo told AM800 News the government wanted the HART hubs operational by spring 2025

-With files from The Canadian Press

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