Achi news desk-
Parts of the Ontario government building were briefly closed and evacuated Tuesday after a suspicious package sent to Premier Doug Ford turned out to be a packet of powdered gravy.
Toronto police said they were called to Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto shortly after 11:30am after a suspicious package was found.
Investigators said staff were evacuated from a “small area” of the government building while the package was examined. Officers at the scene determined that the package filled with powder that had been sent to the premier was “powder gravy”.
The premier’s office told Global News that “a package containing a suspicious substance was delivered to the fourth floor of the Whitney Block.”
The building stands immediately east of the legislature and houses a range of government offices.
Global News sent questions to Sergeant-at-Arms Tim McGough, who heads Ontario’s Legislative Protective Service, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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Ford, who now presides over the most expensive Premier’s Office in the province’s history, has been accused of running his own gravy train – a term Ford’s brother Rob Ford used as a campaign slogan battle cry in 2010 and drove into the Toronto mayor’s office in a landslide victory.
The Premier’s Office under Ford has grown in size and cost over the past five years and now includes 48 staff earning more than $100,000 a year. The total cost of salaries over $100,000 in his office grew from $2.9 million in 2019 to $6.9 million in 2023.
Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser recently brought a can of gravy into the legislative chamber in a stunt designed to drive the point home.
“I did that to remind him that he has more than doubled the staff in his office to 48 people who are all on the Sunshine List, all of whom make more than the median family income in Ontario,” Fraser said in early April .
“I think that’s obscene.”
On Tuesday morning, Fraser said someone told him they had also sent gravy to the premier.
“If people are sending the main gravy packs unsolicited, maybe the gravy train is starting to stick,” he said.
Fraser later added that people wanting to send the message could send an “email, letter or draw a picture with a gravy packet” to the premier’s office instead of actually sending a physical package.
The government building reopened after a brief closure and staff were able to return to work on Tuesday.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
