Premier Kathleen Wynne was taunted from the right and left Monday for flip-flopping on support for a Progressive Conservative bill to help construction giant EllisDon.

Bill 74 would exempt the firm — a major donor to the Liberal and Conservative parties — from a 1958 agreement requiring it to use unionized workers only, which the company said left it at a competitive disadvantage.

“Now she’s scrambling to distance herself from the very bill she championed,” New Democrat MPP Taras Natyshak told the legislature’s daily question period.

“The premier’s position has more loops and turns than a roller coaster.”

Wynne had backed the private members’ legislation from Tory MPP Monte McNaughton (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex), agreeing it was needed to create a “level playing field” for EllisDon.

However, the premier changed tack after a recent Ontario Divisional Court ruling quashed an earlier decision by the Ontario Labour Relations Board holding EllisDon to the agreement.

“We believe the bill is no longer needed,” Wynne said Monday in response to repeated questions from Natyshak and McNaughton, who charged the premier had “flipped and flopped.”

McNaughton said his bill still needs the minority Liberal government’s backing because unions are seeking leave to appeal the court ruling, but Wynne insisted there is no longer any “urgency” to the issue.

“There has been no appeal granted at this point.”

The court ruling is being appealed by two major unions, the Ontario Sheet Metal Workers’ and Roofers’ Conference and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 586.

McNaughton’s bill is now under study by a legislative committee, with EllisDon representatives appearing in favour and unions fighting it.

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