Local candidates have spoken out to the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex community as a live radio debate was held in Wallaceburg on Wednesday evening, June 4.
Six candidates attended the LIVE radio debate at 99.1, to respond to community members questions for the upcoming provincial election.
Candidates in attendance included:
– Joe Hill – NDP
– Monte McNaughton – Progressive Conservative
– Jamie Armstrong – Green Party
– Mike Radan – Liberal
– Matt Wilson – Libertarian
– Bob Lewis – None Of The Above
Not in attendance were Dave Durnin of the Freedom Party and Marinus Vander Vloet of the Family Coalition Party.
Candidates had two minutes each to address the questions.
Questions ranged from the parties plans to control hydro rates, high rising costs of gasoline, policies on wind turbines and renewable energy, support plans for small businesses and entrepreneurs, cuts on rural hospitals, and funding freezes for employees in community and social services in Lambton-Kent–Middlesex.
McNaughton said hydro prices in Ontario are now the most expensive in North America, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and they have a clear plan to fix it.
“The PC’s will end all wind and solar subsidies,” he said. “We will scrap the Green Energy Act and also restore local decision making back to the local town councils and we’re going to clean up the bureaucracy within the hydro system.”
McNaughton added by reducing the bureaucracy within the hydro system, this will lower bills, “by almost $400 per household per year.”
Armstrong said they would also be looking at the Green Energy Act to give communities more control.
“Some of the profits should have been directed back to the communities so that money could have been used for other things, in order to help alleviate the high cost of energy,” he said.
Armstrong added the Green Party will also be looking to get more hydro electric power from Quebec.
“We’re going to implement energy conservation plants so you can go and fix your homes up so that you can conserve energy because conserving energy is actually the best way of creating energy,” he said.
Wilson said, “As far as the hydro goes, instead of cutting back anybody that’s actually working on linesmen… it needs to be the management. It needs to be straightened around and cut back due to the improper management they’ve had for the last couple of decades. That all needs to be looked at and straightened out.”
Wilson added the Green Energy Act needs to also be cut down.
Hill said the NDP plan on turning the four entities into a single one based on the electricity program that was developed back in the 1990’s, which semi-privatized the public electrical system.
“We plan on bringing those four entities back into one and getting that under control because we’re now paying four CEO’s instead of one CEO,” he said. “One of the CEO’s makes over a million dollars a year.”
Hill said they plan to take the 13% HST off of hydro bills to make living more affordable for homeowners.
“We didn’t vote for HST in the first place and we don’t think its necessary on peoples hydro bill.”
Hill added this reduction would be from the 8% provincial portion, excluding the 5% HST/GST Federal portion.
Radan said the Liberals have three equal priorities when it comes to energy and electricity.
“It has to be reliable, clean and affordable,” he said. “Reliability we’ve made investments in transmission to increase the reliability in the system, something that wasn’t done in the 1990’s. We’ve stopped burning coal, the first jurisdiction in North America and that’s something we all should be proud of.
Radan said in the budget that was presented May 1 they included “concrete measures” to bring down the bill programs.
Lewis said everybody has agreed that “we’re already paying too much.
“I think we’re going to have to pay more regardless. Everybody can promise to lower the rates, but it doesn’t happen. What is promised before election never seems to materialize afterwards,” he said.
Lewis added people in Ontario should make an effort to limit their energy use.
“We do need green energy but the greenest energy is that in which you don’t use,” he said. “People have got to learn to use a little less.”
Another topic during the debate was healthcare
Natalie Mehra, executive director for the Ontario Health Coalition, phoned in to say after watching the television broadcast of the debate on June 3, she was “shocked and really disappointed” that healthcare was not discussed in depth.
“People all across Ontario are really worried in smaller communities to see the devastation of their local hospitals like here in Wallaceburg,” Mehra said.
McNaughton said it’s a “disgrace” what has happened to rural hospitals.
“Just look at where the Sydenham was 12 years ago when this government got elected,” he said. “Dozens and dozens of beds and lots of services. Now we have one floor that’s abandoned.”
McNaughton added: “We need front line services. I’ve been fighting to get in our platform and have succeeded a plan to get rid of the local health-integration networks.”
McNaughton said that the five hundred million dollars that goes to this bureaucracy would be put into front line services.
“We’ve got a plan to restore services and to ensure that the people of Wallaceburg and across rural Ontario are served with fully functioning hospitals.
McNaughton added the PC’s plan to hire more nurses, doctors and PSW’s for home care.
Armstrong said the Green Party is going to try to sustain what is out there right now.
“Obviously we’ve got some spending fiscal problems out there,” he said. “We’re going to try to put some taxes back on the aggregates that we are right now selling the cheapest across Canada in order to try and fund some of these.”
Armstrong added they plan to give tax credits for people who want to join gyms.
“That’s actually going to help with jobs being created again and will get taxes back and then we can put that money back into the healthcare system,” he said. “Drug companies are one of the most profitable corporations that there are so, we need to investigate what is going on there and figure out how we’re going to drop the price of drugs so we can reinvest that money in the front line workers.”
Wilson said for the limited government portion of the Libertarian platform, “we would fall in line with bringing down the excess bureaucratic portion of the healthcare system where it takes away from the front line, like nurses and doctors.
“That would have to be cut back down. Regional, small hospitals need to be kept going. It just makes more sense,” he said.
Hill said the NDP plan to cut emergency room wait times in half, cap CEO salaries and invest the savings in front line healthcare.
“What we have right now is a system that is based on a hierarchy that doesn’t work,” he said.
Hill added the NDP plans to help support seniors.
“We need to give seniors the support they need to live in their own home,” Hill said. “Right now we’re trying to push seniors into private facilities where they have to pay an arm and an leg to live in.”
Radan said he understands that hospitals are always emotional issues, in any community, but especially in Wallaceburg.
“I have committed and the government has committed to keeping the Sydenham Hospital open,” he said.
Radan added the Liberals are dedicated to coordinating the care to come with the best possible patient outcomes at an affordable rate.
“We need people in place so they can assess patients and they can put the best procedures in place, get people back into community care, and get people back into their homes quicker,” Radan said.
Lewis said as far as he was concerned, “everyone here is pretty much in denial of what is really going on.
“We’re in trouble,” Lewis said, adding that half the wealth in Canada is owned by 70-80 people and the rest of us share the other half. The healthcare system “in recent times has been taken apart. Other countries can come in and they pull the best people away with higher wages. It’s not a fair system.”
The Lambton-Kent-Middlsex candidates are in Wallaceburg again this evening (June 5) for a debate at the Royal Canadian Legion, Br. 18, sponsored by the Chatham-Kent Health Coalition and the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Local 35.
Here’s some photos of Wednesdays debate in Wallaceburg:
