QUEEN’S PARK – Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell has found a new job in the Doug Ford Progressive Conservative government.
McDonell will be serving as Assistant to new Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clark.
Clark, Premier Doug Ford and the rest of his cabinet were sword in at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Friday, June 29.
“My main responsibility will be dealing with municipalities across the province,” said McDonell in an interview with Seaway News.
McDonell pointed that he had been a Mayor and Councillor in South Glengarry for 18 years as evidence of his experience and preparation for his new job.
“We’ve got a very talented group and I look forward to working with them,” said McDonell.
“Steve and I are fairly close. Steve was around to help me in my first election campaign,” McDonell said of his new minister, Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark. “I’m very pleased he is taking over Municipal Affairs.”
McDonell said that the first order of business for the new government will be a full audit of the financial books.
Earlier in June, Premier Designate Doug Ford announced his intention to kill the cap-and-trade program and the GreenON program, two projects started by the former Liberal government to combat climate change. When asked about issues like climate change, McDonell said the new government took the issue seriously.
“I don’t think it is fair or right for Ontario to try and solve the problems of the world,” he said. “It was just another form of taxation they wanted to implement.”
McDonell said that to effectively combat climate change, Ontario had to work with its neighbours to find a solution that works for everyone.
