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Headlines

Whether Patrick Brown can run again as a Progressive Conservative is up to the future party leader. So says interim leader Vic Fedeli, who told reporters yesterday he stood by his decision to boot Brown from caucus earlier this month, The Globe and Mail reports. When that happened on Feb. 16, Brown lost the automatic nomination granted to him as a sitting Tory MPP.

(Last week, however, the PC nominations committee gave the ousted leader the green light to run for a Barrie-area candidacy under the big blue banner. But there's another but: Under revised party rules crafted during Brown's reign, the leader has the power to override the results of a nomination race — meaning Brown could win the nomination in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte but still be cast aside by the new leader. A little bit ironic?)

Ottawa has set a carbon-tax trap for the Ontario Tories, the Ottawa Citizen reports. The feds have set a deadline for Ontario to indicate if it wants the feds to tax carbon emissions on its behalf, Tuesday's federal budget states. That could trip up the PCs, as the deadline will shine more light on an issue that has divided the Tories in recent times.

Meanwhile, Maclean's replays the one-night saga of Patrick Brown, serving up a minute-by-minute timeline of urgent staffer emails and PC press conference prep behind the scenes on that fateful day of Jan. 24 that culminated in the resignation of a would-be premier. It also includes the quote, "rat f-kers."

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In other news:

Vic Fedeli channels Ronald Reagan as he proclaims that it's "Morning in the PC party," one day after Brown's exit from the leadership race.

Prisoners' family members — the forgotten society — contend with stigma and isolation daily, although a national support network is buoying hopes, TVO reports.

Indigenous people in Toronto are far more likely than people throughout the rest of Ontario to be homeless, hungry and unemployed, and to be involved with child protection services and the justice system, the Toronto Star reports.

In a pair of class action lawsuits, a Hamilton woman aims to draw attention to Jehovah's Witness child sex abuse allegations, CBC News reports.

Toronto Star reporter Tanya Talaga wins the $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize for "Seven Fallen Feathers," a non-fiction book that traces the lives and deaths of several Indigenous teens in northern Ontario.

Local investors have planted a seed to grow medical marijuana in the building that once housed the biggest bowling alley in Canada, the Windsor Star reports. The Dude would be delighted.

From the opinion pages:

John Michael McGrath says Metrolinx’s revised GO train plans may be productive, "but prior Liberal sins mean we can’t trust the process."
David Reevely spies a national pharmacare promise without the cash to pay for it, symbolic of a federal budget that talks middle class empowerment but "somehow does relatively little for the middle class’s benefit."
PhD student Neil Price writes that Toronto's police leadership is in free-fall.
Fraser Institute analyst Angela MacLeod laments that Ontario lags behind B.C. in education results.
Columnist Luisa D'Amato criticizes the union tack in a faculty strike last fall that derailed hundreds of Kitchener college students who did not return to their studies the following semester.

Bills and motions

That, in the opinion of the House, we recognize that climate change is a real and present threat that is already costing Ontario families, and that Ontario should do its part in supporting national and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution at the lowest possible cost to families and businesses by putting a price on pollution to combat climate change.

Resuming the debate adjourned on Feb. 27 on the motion for Second Reading of Bill 194, An Act respecting fairness in procurement.

Committees

9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Standing committee on public accounts will meet to consider Public Accounts of the Province (Chapter 2, 2017 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario). Room 151. First session is closed, second session is open and watchable (though not necessarily highly watchable).

9 a.m.

Standing committee on regulations and private bills will meet for the purpose of report writing. Room 1.

Events

8 a.m.

Ontario Power Generation livestream at the Nanticoke Generating Station. The window opens at 8 a.m. and the stack drop is at 8:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) releases the "Implementing supervised injection services" best practice guideline. South Riverdale Community Health Centre, 955 Queen St. E., Toronto.

10:30 a.m.

Premier Kathleen Wynne to attend Question Period. Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto.

12:00 p.m.

Wynne to attend a Cabinet Meeting, Main Legislative Building – Room 275, Queen’s Park.

12:30 p.m.

MPP Sam Oosterhoff to discuss private members’ bill: Removing Barriers in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. Media Studio, Queen's Park.

3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Ontario’s four political party leaders will participate in an unprecedented pre-election discussion hosted by Ryerson University’s Faculty of Arts. George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, Sears Atrium, 3rd floor, 245 Church St., Ryerson University, Toronto.

6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Ontario PC Leadership debate. Shaw Centre, Ottawa.

Your morning briefing