Government relations in “Minority Government Ontario”
Here are our answers to some questions about the ways Ontario’s Minority Government situation will impact your government relations strategies.
We’ve thought about this very carefully, and here are our answers to some key questions. How will the parties try to manage the Minority situation. How will individual MPPs – including Liberal backbench MPPs – operate in the Minority environment? What role can Private Member’s Bills play? What about Legislative Committees?
And does the Minority situation change the basic rules of effective government relations?
The Parties will manage the Minority situation very carefully.
When Premier Dalton McGuinty faced the press after his party’s Minority Government election in this fall’s Ontario election, he said he had a “Major Minority” and indicated that it would be pretty much business as usual at Queen’s Park.
Leaders of newly-elected Minority Governments often say that, but that’s not usually the way it works (as Joe Clark found out when he decided to govern “as though he have a majority”, and got his name in the record books as one of the shortest serving Prime Ministers in Canadian history).
In this Minority Legislature, none of the parties is ready for an early election, so while there may be lots of posturing, they’re all going to be wrestling with the same question: “How can we make this thing work, while making our side look better than their sides?”
In that environment, there are some interesting new possibilities that could become an important part of your government relations strategies.
In a Minority Legislature, individual MPPs and Legislative Committees should play an important part in your government relations planning.
When the Government has a majority, the ability of anyone except Cabinet Ministers to influence government policy is very, very limited. Government backbenchers tend to follow instructions, hoping that they’ll make it to cabinet or receive some other appointment to augment their status (and their incomes). Opposition parties often have a more relaxed approach to Party discipline, but it’s very hard for them to do much more than play a blocking role in the process, while hoping to erode public confidence in and support for the government.
But in a Minority Legislature, every MPP can make a difference.
It starts with members of the Liberal Government’s own Caucus
Government backbenchers are often the forgotten people in the Legislature, but in a Minority situation, Ministers can’t afford to take their backbench colleagues for granted. And in a Minority environment, those backbench government caucus members are more likely to remember (or be receptive to reminders) that they didn’t run for office in order to be rubber stamps for decisions made in Cabinet.
So when you’re looking for potential champions to help take your issues forward, give serious thought to including backbench Liberals on your list. They’re often easier to get appointments with than Ministers (or even senior bureaucrats), but in the Minority environment, they have real potential to influence government decisions.
In a Minority Legislature, Private Member’s Bills can be powerful tools to help achieve your government relations goals.
Even in “normal” Parliaments (for normal, read Majority), Private Member’s Bills can be an effective way to draw attention to issues, but Majority Governments can make sure they never pass, never generate significant debate and never come to a vote because Majority Governments control all the business of the House.
In Minority situations, that’s all changed. If enough MPPs agree, Private Member’s Bills can move through the legislative process, sparking public debate and building awareness of issues and, very possibly, becoming law. And there’s very little the Government can do about it.
The first step is to find an MPP who is willing to be the Champion for your issue by filing a Private Member’s Bill. It’s important to make sure your Champion is committed to moving the Bill forward and has enough standing with other MPPs to get the votes needed to move the process forward.
That makes it reasonable to spend a little time finding out how the Private Member’s Bill system works.
Basically, it works like this:
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Any Member of the Legislature can file a Private Member’s Bill (and some file dozens)
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Only a very few of those Bills – usually two a week during the Legislative Session – actually make to the floor of the House
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Members are selected by lottery to have the privilege of introducing their Bills on the Floor of the House; when a Member is selected, she can introduce any Bill that has been property filed; that means that, conceivably, even if your Champion is not selected, it may be possible to persuade a Colleague to move the matter forward.
If the Bill is presented and passes Second Reading, it will normally be referred to a Legislative Committee for further study and debate.
Minority Governments, Legislative Committees can be where the action is.
In Majority situations, Legislative Committees are virtually surprise-free: with a majority of Members on every committee, the Government controls what they will talk about, what if any hearings they will hold, whether or not they will travel to consult in all parts of the province, the wording of any Committee reports that are issued and – of course – how the Committee will vote on any Bill or Motion before it.
Not so in a Minority Parliament. Now the Members of the Committee – MPPs from all parties with no automatic Government veto – make their own decisions. That makes Committee Chairs potentially among the most important people you’ll address in your government relations activities.
So – it’s important to know who the Chairs the Committees are and who are the Senior representatives from each Party. If you’re hoping to engage the Committee in addressing your issues, it’s useful to have some understanding of the personal chemistry among Committee Members.
All these “Minority Government Differences” won’t replace the normal requirements for good Government Relations.
The principles are still the same: learning about the needs of both the political and bureaucratic parts of the Government, working to align your issues and objectives with theirs, building relations based on trust and respect.
But whereas Government could simply stonewall when they had a majority, in Minority Ontario there are additional opportunities to move matters forward. And it’s a healthy difference – with elected Members having more scope to contribute to deliberations and decisions.
That can be a powerful added plus for a well thought out Government Relations strategy.
A last very important fact: No matter what the politicians say, Ontario is just about broke. Keep that in mind as you develop your Government Relations strategies.
The Province is going to be under extreme fiscal pressure for the next number of months; there’s even a chance Ontario’s Credit Rating could be down-graded.
That means that, if the main objectives of your Government Relations strategies involve large government expenditures, this may be a good time for you to plan to play defence – focusing on keeping as much as possible of what you already have rather than on reaching out for more.
At the same time, it may mean that if you have an issue that does not involve large additional expenditure, this could be your hour: governments like to do things and when there’s no money, they might find “free reforms” attractive.
If you’re adapting your Government Relations Strategies to cope with the reality of a Minority Government in the Province, we should talk.
We’re recommending that every organization review your Government Relations strategies to identify possible problems or opportunities that arise because we have a Minority Government in Ontario today. We can help – with a short, intense planning and review session for the key people involved in your government relations activities, or though custom workshops to help make sure your people are all on the same page.
