After seeing the results of a recent poll question, where we asked our readers what they thought was the biggest issue during this Federal Election, we asked the candidates in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex to discuss how they would address the jobs/economy issue if elected as MP.
Jim Johnston, Green Party
“When people talk about economy, quite often what they really mean is they want jobs or they want an opportunity to make more money. So the key is to have a solid industrial development strategy that is tailored to the specific regions. Lambton-Kent Middlesex is such a large region, it has different needs depending on what corner of the riding you are in.
So our plan with the Green Party is to work with municipal governments to develop those plans. Get the infrastructure in place that we need to develop local industries to work at home, to get the education they need at or near home and that they will be able to in fact have their careers where they grow up without having to move away to other areas.”
Ken Filson, Liberal
“I think that jobs are really important. We are going to create jobs and grow the economy in three important ways.
The first is our infrastructure investment. So we are going to double infrastructure investment in Canada and that money is going to flow from the Federal Government, through the provinces directly to the municipalities. In Wallaceburg and Dresden to the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. They will make the decisions as to what are their key priorities. That’s money for roads and bridges, money for affordable housing, retirement, homes, day care, as well as money for childcare spaces. That is going to be up to the Municipality to invest those funds.
The other thing we are going to do is a middle class tax cut. So we are going to cut taxes to the middle class and we are going to ask the 1% of the country who does the best to pay a little bit more in income taxes. We know that middle class hasn’t had a raise in many years and we are going to provide them with funds and they are going to spend it and put that money back into the economy.
The third item is our Canada child benefits which is going to provide nine out of 10 families with more funds, those funds will be tax free and that will lift 315,000 out of poverty. We know that those families need that money and they will spend that money again in the local economy.
So those are things that are important. We are the only party with regards to the Child Canada Benefit that will stop sending cheques to millionaires just because they have children. These people don’t need it. The people who do are at the lower end of the income scale and we are going to make sure that they get it.”
Bev Shipley, Conservative
“Actually that has been our focus, not only in this election but in previous elections also. It’s always about jobs and creating a strong economy. As you know we came through one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression of the 30’s and we went into that with a program of lowering taxes for not only individuals but for businesses of all sizes because of that we now have an increase of jobs. 1.2 net new jobs since the recession.
Why are the jobs and the economy important? That’s it. Lambton-Kent Middlesex, particularly when you think about in the Wallceburg, Dresden and all of those areas around us, Thamesville, what is really important is that we give our small businesses, that’s what our economy is made up of.
Give our small and medium size businesses the opportunity to be viable, to grow and how do we attract those business, even new ones into our area. When you work with your municipalities and you work with the provinces, but clearly federally I can only talk about a tax regime for them. We want to make sure that our small businesses have those opportunities to grow because, those small businesses are always family owned and when you have a family owned businesses, they hire people and if they grow they create more jobs.
So the reality is, as we live through this recession and we came back out of it, and we have balanced the budget by the way, now we actually have a surplus which is at odds with other parties to be honest. We have now created a surplus because businesses have been successful. They actually want to drive us down into a deficit, which doesn’t make any sense at all.
The other part of it is we do not want to add any employee taxes to these companies. These companies as we open trade agreements around the world and we get access to these companies, some that will only be domestic and sell nationally, but there are so many of our businesses that make product that go through another company, then they make it assembled, that assembly product then gets exported into other countries. So when we talk about lowering taxes for smaller businesses, it’s about making them competitive in a world market. That is why we are successful and we are going to continue to do that, which is sort of at odds with other parties right now.”
Rex Isaac, NDP
“There are several things. I mean jobs and economy, that’s a huge area. The Conservatives have basically had a one track economy. It’s basically oil and that’s it and so we are subject due to the rise and fall of the oil prices and the things that happen with the oil industries. We can’t run an economy or country on a one track economy. We have got to have a multi-track economy.
One of the things that happened recently is that we were on a tour with the local Chamber of Commerce in Chatham-Kent. So we got to see a lot of innovators in Chatham-Kent who are developing and enhancing existing and new technology. Whether it’s agricultural, I think it was mainly agricultural related, but there is a lot of people out there who are creating our new next generations of jobs and innovations. In the Federal government, what our job is, is to provide tools that these innovators and these people who are developing these types of jobs, the opportunity to access them and to support them. I think that is the most key role that I play as the next MP. It’s to make sure we have a multi-track economy that is totally inclusive of everybody that is working forward to make a riding in Canada as a whole better. We cant have just a single track economy. When they hear Government say ‘oh, well we are going to create all these jobs’… I don’t really buy that. Government doesn’t create jobs and when they do, it costs taxpayers money.
So what we do, is we provide the supports, financial and otherwise, to make sure that the people that are involved in business, our local entrepreneurs, our small businesses, our medium businesses and all of our innovators, that we provide that mechanism so that they can create those jobs.”
Election day is Oct. 19.
