By Stephanie MacLellan
Ottawa Centre MPP Richard Patten didn’t get a seat in Dalton McGuinty’s newly-formed cabinet, but he will serve as assistant to the education minister and chair of the legislation and regulations committee.
Patten first was minister of government services, then minister of correctional services in David Peterson’s last Liberal government from 1987 until its defeat by the NDP in 1990.
“Obviously, I’m very disappointed,” Patten says about not getting a portfolio in the new government.
“I would have thought I’d make a good contribution there, but it’s not my decision. We had a big caucus, and it’s not an easy job to select 22 out of 72 people.”
But Patten says he’s looking forward to his new position as chair of the legislation and regulations committee, which examines new legislation and makes policy recommendations to cabinet.
“It’s a very heavy committee, and it’s interesting because everything that’s going to cabinet has to go through the committee first,” he says. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
He says he expects the committee to review legislation concerning auto insurance, the privatization of government services, health care and the environment.
Patten will also help to empower displaced school board trustees in his role as parliamentary assistant to Education Minister Gerard Kennedy.
“We work well together,” says Patten. “I asked for this position, and they agreed.”
Patten says Ottawa Centre residents will benefit from having an MPP with ready access to provincial decision-makers.
“Rather than knocking on the door, you are . . . on the inside of things,” he says. “I’m a partner to the minister of education, and I see him four or five times a day. So for anything that relates to that, (constituents) can say, ‘Listen, I’ve got a problem,’ and I can bring it up the next time I see him.”