Ontario Premier Doug Ford will not recall the legislature for more than a month, his office has confirmed, but plans to swear in his cabinet ministers in just over a week’s time as a tariff fight with the U.S. continues.
Ford dissolved the legislature at the end of January to call a snap winter election, which his party won with a majority of 80 seats. The NDP formed Opposition with 27.
The premier said he needed to call the election to receive a bigger mandate than he had before to fight tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump and potentially spend tens of billions stimulating the economy.
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Since the election — where Ford won three seats fewer than in 2022 — he has resisted calls from the opposition to recall the legislature to scrutinize his tariff response plans and said he “doesn’t need” the house to be back to respond.
Both the Ontario NDP and the Liberals have asked for MPPs to return and for the creation of an all-party working group or committee to respond to tariffs.
On Friday, Ford’s office announced his cabinet would be sworn in on March 17 but said MPPs would not return to the legislature until April 14.
“It’s absolutely shameful, the premier should be calling the legislature back immediately,” NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky told Global News.
“When he talks about all hands on deck — and everybody working together across party lines when it comes to these tariff threats — by pushing us off to mid-April to recall the legislature he is showing that that’s not really what he’s interested in doing.”
Gretzky said it would be a “failure” for voters if Ford doesn’t call the legislature back sooner, which would likely also delay the provincial budget process.
The speech from the throne, where the government lays out its legislative agenda and ambitions, is scheduled to take place on April 15.
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