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
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of an Alberta woman who was unwilling to be vaccinated in order to get a life-saving organ transplant.
What happens to the brain when you take gravity away? According to a new study looking at astronauts both before and after space travel, that experience causes physical changes that researchers believe requires at least three years between longer missions to recover from.
As wildfires rage across Canada in what’s being called an unprecedented season, one expert says there’s more that individuals and communities can do to adapt and prevent forest fires from causing widespread devastation.
Rescuers in Washington state are praising the resourcefulness of a 10-year-old girl who survived on her own for more than 24 hours in the rugged terrain of the Cascade mountains after getting lost while out with her family.
Air pollution from wildfires remained well above healthy levels across much of southern and northern Ontario and several communities in British Columbia and Alberta on Thursday.
Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier Francois Legault said Thursday.
An Ontario man charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of the late Montreal Mafia associate Moreno Gallo, was arrested the day after the killing in Ontario on unrelated drug charges, public records show.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
In the summer of 2022, London, Ont. barber and business owner Eddie Lopez suffered a brain aneurysm, heart attack, stroke, and seizure. He remains in hospital to this day.
University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have been looking at ways to breed dairy cows that burp out less methane, a harmful greenhouse gas emission contributing to climate change.
An 18-year-old woman riding a bike was taken to an out-of-region hospital with what police call “possible serious injuries” after a crash involving a sedan in Kitchener.
A $100 million class action lawsuit launched on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Manitoulin Island has been abandoned after the victims reached individual settlements with the church.
As interest rates continue to rise, the cost of buying a house in Ottawa and across Canada is becoming more expensive. Many homeowners are now forced to extend their mortgage payments.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
The grief-stricken parents of a young teen killed in his driveway in Barrie in 2021 delivered haunting victim impact statements in court Thursday, recalling the day their "world was destroyed."
A long stretch without rain combined with high temperatures and dry ground conditions has many municipalities across Simcoe County with an extreme fire danger rating and burn ban.
The shifting winds late Thursday morning are predicted to push high levels of air pollution over the City of Barrie and surrounding areas from smoke emanating from wildfires in Quebec and northeastern Ontario.
New Brunswick students under the age of 16 who identify as trans and non-binary won't be able to officially change their names or pronouns in school without parental consent.
The Halifax Regional Municipality says it will announce Thursday when more residents can return to their homes in communities impacted by the Tantallon wildfires.
Two years after two statues were knocked down and damaged at the Manitoba Legislature, one is now back up and Indigenous leaders are upset by the decision.
Tumbler Ridge, a community with a population of 2,400 in northeastern B.C., has been ordered to evacuate Thursday due to the danger posed by an encroaching wildfire.
More than 70 guests have RSVP'd for a Squamish couple's beach wedding in Tofino, but the wildfire-related closure of Highway 4 has upended their plans.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
Premier Danielle Smith says the government is bringing in arson investigators from outside the province to trace the cause of some wildfires during an unprecedented season in Alberta.
