This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Progressive Conservative MPPs on the government agencies committee refused to extend the deadline for Madeleine Bodenstein to appear and justify her appointment to York Regional Police services board.
Bodenstein sat at Premier Doug Ford's table at his daughter's wedding reception last year and is a generous PC donor. The assignment to York's police board would be her second provincial appointment since the wedding.
Cabinet tabled its sign-off of Bodenstein's appointment to the York police board on March 10. She was confirmed as a part-time member of the provincial Death Investigation Oversight Council in December, less than three months after the Sept. 25 wedding of Ford's daughter.
The Ontario government makes new appointments to the province's various boards, agencies and commissions on an almost weekly basis.
After cabinet files intended appointments in the legislature, the government agencies committee has the chance to review them and call appointees forward to justify their assignment. Both government and opposition MPPs on the committees make selections, after which time chosen appointees have one month to appear at a meeting.
There's nothing forcing them to show up, though. If a pending appointee doesn't come to the committee, they're automatically appointed after a 30-day period, unless the committee unanimously agrees to extend the deadline.
Not extending deadlines is "the new norm," NDP MPP Doly Begum, who sits on the committee, told The Trillium in an interview.
"We've seen in the past the government make very partisan appointments," she said. "And I have a very hard time accepting the new process of not going through interviews, not doing any hearings, not having any sort of process for the public to see an individual come to the committee."
"I think it undermines the effectiveness of the committee," Begum added.
In March, the NDP requested that Bodenstein come to the committee. By the committee's last meeting on April 13, Bodenstein hadn't shown up and the NDP asked for unanimous consent to extend the deadline to May 16.
The PCs didn't grant it, so Bodenstein's appointment will automatically be approved. The PCs did the same thing when former MPP Jeremy Roberts was appointed to the Licence Appeal Tribunal last year.
"It is common and regular practice for the Standing Committee on Government Agencies to abide by the regular 30-day standard for review of government appointments," said Owen Macri, chief of staff to Government House Leader Paul Calandra, in an email statement.
"It is disingenuous for the NDP to take issue with the amount of time available to consider intended appointments, especially given that as recently as April 5, the NDP opted to select no appointees at all for review," he added.
During last week's government agencies committee meeting, Begum expressed further frustration with how the processes have been playing out.
"What is so wrong with having unanimous consent so that we can go forward and have these appointees ... come forward?" Begum asked at the meeting.
"So I just ask for the government members to think again before the vote, and I really hope that this unanimous consent motion will be granted because it's very important that we have an opportunity to question each and every single person that we believe are people of interest to be questioned," she said.
"This is the same behaviour we have seen from the Ford government since 2018. They avoid transparency wherever they can," said Liberal interim leader John Fraser, who also sits on the committee.
"If the government truly believes that their appointees are qualified for these positions, then they should have no issue allowing them to spend 15 minutes answering questions from the committee," he added.
Provincial appointees to the York police board get a $9,869 honorarium in 2023 from the Regional Municipality of York, according to a spokesperson for the region. They also get reasonable expenses covered if they have to travel for conferences or training sessions, but not for regular work expected of them, such as attending board meetings.
Bodenstein is a Thornhill realtor and funeral director. She's also on the board of directors of the Reena Foundation, a non-profit, Jewish faith-based organization that provides support for people living with disabilities. Reena has been a regular provincial grant recipient under Ontario's current and previous government, the Ontario Trillium Foundation's website shows.
Elections Ontario's political contributions database shows that donations made from names matching Bodenstein's total $15,363 to PC party causes, including its riding associations and candidates, since 2014. She also gave $1,184 to the Ontario Liberal Party's Willowdale riding association in 2016.
Recipients of Bodenstein's donations include Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, Associate Mental Health and Addictions Minister Michael Tibollo, Multiculturalism Minister Michael Ford, and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner.
Once her latest appointment is official, Bodenstein will join Mario Cortellucci on the York police board.
Cortellucci, the president of the Vaughan-based Cortel Group, his family's development company, also sat at the premier’s table at his daughter’s wedding and has deep ties to the Ford family. He was appointed to the board on Oct. 20, less than a month after the wedding.
