Are two Teds better than one?
Members of the Puslinch Community Oriented Policing (COP) committee are ready to give it a try.
On April 26, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott led a delegation of Puslinch COP Committee representatives to meet with Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale MPP Ted McMeekin at McMeekin’s constituency office in Waterdown.
McMeekin serves as Minister of Community and Social Services in the Ontario Cabinet.
Highway 6 runs through McMeekin’s riding and narrows from four to two lanes in the northern region of his constituency.
A Puslinch COP press release stated that as a member of Cabinet, McMeekin is not allowed to speak in the Legislature when Ted Arnott raises the issue of the Morriston bypass to the House.
In a later telephone conversation with the Wellington Advertiser, Arnott offered clarification to that statement.
Of the meeting itself, Arnott said he was glad to be able to attend the meeting with McMeekin and the COP committee representatives.
During the meeting, the group asked if McMeekin would stand to show his support when Arnott brings forward the petition asking the Morriston bypass move forward on the provincial agenda.
Arnott stated there is no provincial standing order which would allow that to happen.
“Cabinet members are not normally involved in petitions – because they are the government – and petitions typically are asking the government to take an action.”
For the same reason, cabinet members do not present petitions in the house themselves, Arnott explained.
He added there are rules as to how and when issues can be brought up in the house.
“We do not just stand up whenever we want.”
However, Arnott said, McMeekin has committed to raise the issue with the Minister of Transportation.
Arnott believed that in itself was a positive step when government ministers are ready to talk to each other about the issue.
He added there are other means to let cabinet ministers know about the benefits a Morriston bypass would bring to the area.
Arnott remained positive about the work done at various levels from the COP committee, to Puslinch council and Mayor Dennis Lever, and the citizens of Puslinch.
“We are all trying to work together to make this happen,” Arnott said.
The COP press release noted “As a Cabinet member, however, Ted McMeekin’s first-hand knowledge of the Highway 6 bypass debate would lend credibility to any voice that he may have in Cabinet should it be on the agenda. Success in getting the Morriston bypass on the province’s five year highway construction plan may very well hinge on whether Two Ted’s are Better than One!”
