The informal summer meeting will give the Ford majority government the opportunity to present its agenda in a speech from the throne on August 9 and submit a budget in the coming days.
A senior government source says the legislature will continue to meet until the autumn. The usual schedule is for Queen’s Park to be off until mid-September.
The first round of legislative work on August 8, when lawmakers gather in the chamber for the first time since the election, will be the election of a President for the 43rd Provincial Parliament.
Ford said his new government would have essentially the same budget as Treasury Secretary Peter Bethlenfalvy in late April. This budget was not approved because the government suspended the parliament immediately after for the election campaign.
Earlier Wednesday, Ford appointed 43 of his MPs as parliamentary assistants to cabinet ministers. The work is accompanied by a renewal of $ 16,600 against the basic MPP salary of $ 116,500 per year.
He was added to the 30-member cabinet sworn in last Friday, which means that 73 of the 83 Progressive Conservative MPs are ministers or parliamentary assistants. The President and Vice-President are almost certain to be elected by the remaining 10 PC MPs.
Kathleen Wynne’s re-elected Liberal government in 2014 had 28 ministers and 29 parliamentary assistants.
The salaries of all Ontario lawmakers, from opposition supporters to the prime minister, have been frozen since 2008.
