1998. He later introduced a bill giving police the power to apprehend any person under eighteen who was involved in prostitution, and take that person to a safe house. The government introduced legislation modeled on Bartolucci's proposal in 2000, and passed it into law in June 2002. Fourteen months later, Bartolucci complained that the law had not yet been enacted. Bartolucci was re-elected by an increased margin in the 1999 provincial election, as the Progressive Conservatives won a second majority government. He was appointed to the Liberal Party's election committee after the campaign, and later served as Chief Opposition Whip. In 2000, he criticized the provincial government for requiring that cancer patients in Northern Ontario pay most of their transportation costs to and from treatment in other areas, while patients referred from Toronto to Sudbury were provided with free transportation and lodging. Bartolucci indicated that he was exploring the possibility of a class-action lawsuit on the matter. Bartolucci made frequent calls for Highway 69 to be twinned between Sudbury and Parry Sound, citing a growing number of fatal accidents in the area. He also chaired the JoeMac committee, which undertook a national campaign to have the killers of Sudbury police officer Joe MacDonald moved to a maximum security prison. The group also opposed what it described as lenient treatment for federal offenders. Cabinet minister Minister of Northern Development and Mines Bartolucci was re-elected in 2003 as the Liberals won a majority government across the province. Bartolucci was endorsed by the Sudbury Police Association in the 2003 provincial election. On October 23, 2003, he was appointed as Minister of Northern Development and Mines in the newly formed government of Dalton McGuinty. In early 2004, Bartolucci re-designated the Muskoka District as a part of southern rather than northern Ontario. The area had been a part of southern Ontario before 2000, when the Harris government chose to include it as part of the north. Bartolucci had criticized this decision at the time, arguing that it would allow wealthy cottage communities to access funds earmarked for northern development. Bartolucci declined to intervene when Inco announced the closure of its Copper Cliff copper refinery in May 2005, saying that he would not compel a company to keep open a financially troubled entity. The United Steelworkers of America protested this decision. Bartolucci announced in March 2004 that he would end the previous government's efforts to privatize