It took nearly two months following the October 10 election for the McGuinty government to call the House back into session. Were they taking the time to set meaningful priorities for the session and the year ahead? We all hoped so.

The long awaited session lasted just two weeks and in that time only one piece of legislation was debated. That legislation was Bill 8, an Act to regulate trans fat content in food and beverages sold in school cafeterias. Such a debate is all well and good, but is it really the first order of business a government should choose to launch its second term?

It doesn’t bode well for a government if its primary ambition is to ban snack foods when there are many more pressing issues, such as growing wait lists for health care and in emergency rooms, gridlock on our streets and highways, a farming industry in peril, and an economy that has ranked dead last in Canada for a second straight year.

Even if they wanted to stick with education, there are far more priority issues such as: crumbling schools in need of repairs like Central Public School in Grimsby; a failing classroom size policy that is forcing more students into split grades and portables like at Blessed Trinity in Grimsby; over crowded schools such as those in Stoney Creek and Glanbrook; and a rash violent incidents occurring in schools across the province. Some kids are bringing guns and knives into our schools, but never mind that – let’s go after that bag of chips.

The short session adjourned on Dec. 14. The House is not expected to resume until February 25, 2008. These are sure signs of a government in serious danger of going adrift.

Despite the short session, I was able to bring forward issues that will benefit the residents in Niagara West-Glanbrook; including re-introducing two private member’s bills – to directly elect the Niagara regional chair and the Homestead Act, which, if passed, will provide real protection for Ontario homeowners, who will face a triple whammy of property assessment increases in 2008.

I was also able to read in several petitions, including ones to bring in a mobile health card renewal clinic for the residents of Mount Hope and Binbrook, and to create an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources-funded gypsy moth spraying program to assist municipalities in fighting the infestation.

If the government is in need of finding meaningful priorities for 2008, I would start with these.