Ontario PC cabinet minister Merrilee Fullerton resigns
Ontario PC cabinet minister Merrilee Fullerton resigns
Merrilee Fullerton, a longtime cabinet minister in Doug Ford's government, unexpectedly resigned Friday, forcing the premier to name a new minister to the children, community and social services post.
Fullerton, who shuffled through three cabinet posts and was in charge when thousands died of COVID-19 in Ontario nursing homes, said she was stepping down immediately as minister and member of provincial parliament for the Ottawa-area riding of Kanata-Carleton.
Ford announced Friday evening that Michael Parsa would move from his role as associate minister of housing to take over as minister of children, community and social services.
The new associate minister of housing will be Nina Tangri, who served as an associate minister in Ford's first government but stayed out of cabinet contention after the 2022 election to make an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the job of Speaker.
Fullerton, a family physician, left medicine for politics in the lead-up to the 2018 election when she won her seat and won again, handily, in 2022.
"A strong sense of duty brought me to politics after decades as a family physician serving my community, to continue my work toward solutions that would address the shortcomings of our health-care system and improve health services for individuals," she wrote in her resignation letter to Ford.
"To serve the people of this province has been a profound honour."
Fullerton's first role in cabinet was as minister of colleges, training and universities, a post she held for one year.
In June 2019, she was named minister of long-term care, a file she held through the early days of the pandemic.
She was heavily criticized for the havoc COVID-19 wrought on long-term care -- 3,794 nursing home residents had died from the virus by the time she was shuffled out of the role in June 2021, and thousands more were infected. Five nursing homes were hit so bad that the province called the army in to help.
A scathing report later found the neglected long-term care sector was unprepared for a pandemic.
In the 2021 cabinet shuffle, Fullerton was named minister of children, community and social services, a role that comes with stickhandling highly sensitive files including autism services for children and the Ontario Disability Support Program.
Fullerton drew the ire of families of children with autism as the rollout of a new program that began under the previous minister was slow and opaque.
Ontario was unable to reach its target of providing funding for core autism therapies to 8,000 families by the end of fall 2022, though it wouldn't say by how much.
Since then, the government removed updates from its website on the number of children registered in the Ontario Autism Program and how many had received interim funding, and refused to publicly divulge the number of children receiving government-funded therapy in response to media requests.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Autism Coalition complained that Fullerton had not meaningfully met with them since taking over the ministry and did not hold a single press conference to publicly discuss or update the program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2023.
This afternoon I spoke with the Premier and tendered my resignation as MPP for Kanata-Carleton and as Minister of Children, Community & Social Services, effective immediately. It has been a distinct honour to have represented the residents of Kanata-Carleton. pic.twitter.com/edN82lxSfo
Seventeen people – most of whom are young students – have been taken to hospital after a falling from a height during a field trip at Winnipeg's Fort Gibraltar.
Although bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Canada, experts say there’s a significant lack of awareness surrounding whom it affects the most — statistically, men — and that the most common risk factor is smoking.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has confidence in David Johnston, even as the House of Commons is about to vote in favour of a motion to push him out of his job.
Canada will soon require health warnings to be printed directly on individual cigarettes, making it the first country to implement this kind of measure aimed at reducing tobacco usage.
More than three years after Covid was declared a global pandemic, a new study is looking at how the international health crisis has changed the lifestyle habits of Canadians.
The Canadian economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year and likely expanded again in April, fuelling speculation that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates again.
A former staffer who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault has defected to Moscow and spoken to Russian state media in a news conference that lasted several hours.
Last year, Quebec’s Bill 96 became law, which brought sweeping changes to the Charter of the French language. Sections of the new law will come into effect on June 1, the one-year anniversary of the bill receiving royal assent.
High heat is pushing into parts of Quebec this week, and many communities could see record-breaking temperatures this week. Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued special weather statements, advising people of the above-average temperatures.
A new team working out of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada (SHC-Canada) wants to get young people like Horn, who injured themselves, back on their feet and running as fast and efficiently as possible.
People who live on Ralgreen Crescent in Kitchener say it could have been a lot worse after a car careened off the road and smashed through their backyards on Tuesday afternoon.
A Toronto woman says she was shamed for the size of her order at a sushi restaurant north of the city in a scathing review posted to social media that’s been viewed more than 1.4 million times.
Forest fires in northern Ontario are on the rise, with the largest in the region shutting down a critical highway for the people of Hornepayne for a bit and bringing the community to the brink of evacuation.
A heat warning is in effect for Ottawa. Environment Canada's forecast calls for sunny and hot weather to continue for the final day of May and the start of June.
Canadian Heritage unveiled the programming for July 1 celebrations, inviting Canadians to come to the capital region to "join the biggest party in the country!"
Windsor police say they are deploying additional officers to the downtown core over the next three days to promote community safety and reduce incidents of crime.
Police charged one man following a serious collision involving a dump truck and car in Barrie on Tuesday afternoon that sent both drivers to the hospital.
May 31, 1985, started like any other day in Barrie, but all that changed later that afternoon when the sky changed colour, suddenly and without warning, plunging the city into chaos.
Seventeen people – most of whom are young students – have been taken to hospital after a falling from a height during a field trip at Winnipeg's Fort Gibraltar.
Seventeen people – most of whom are young students – have been taken to hospital after a falling from a height during a field trip at Winnipeg's Fort Gibraltar.
Hundreds of nurses from across B.C. are gathering in Vancouver Wednesday to demand better working conditions, adding to multiple calls by medical professionals this week for urgent action to staff under-resourced hospitals.
A man who worked at an addiction recovery organization has been charged with three counts of sexual assault, according to the New Westminster Police Department.
The northern Vancouver Island village of Sayward remains on edge Wednesday as a wildfire continues to burn out of control just five kilometres west of the community.
