Healthcare, roads and resource revenue sharing are among the priorities in the NDP’s plan for Northern Ontario.
Shortly after Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath released the platform this morning, Timmins candidate Gilles Bisson and Mushkegowuk-James Bay candidate Guy Bourgouin discussed the plan in Timmins.
Bourgouin said it addresses the gouging at the pumps in Northern Ontario, as well as the privatization of road maintenance.
“Our roads in Northern Ontario make no sense, we’re going to bring it back public ‘cause we are blazing trail in Northern Ontario just to get to work and we are putting our lives in danger,” he said.
Their plan also includes $19 billion for new health care facilities, repairs and upgrades.
“For far too long, we have had hospitals that have not enough beds, emergencies that are chock full, community services that are not as good as they need to be, and homecare that is actually weakened,” said Bisson.
“We have a number of series of investments that we want to make over the period of the government that’ll stop first of all, no more firing of nurses, no more layoffs. Let’s solidify what we’ve got, let’s make sure that hospitals are funded at the rate of inflation and adjust for things like you’re a hospital in Northern Ontario or you have higher costs because of your geographic location and ensure that we make the investments in the community. And that’s actually a savings.”
Resource revenue sharing is being touted by all the parties.
This week, the Liberal government announced resource revenue sharing agreements that will affect 39 communities represented by Grand Council Treaty 3, Wabun Tribal Council and Mushkegowuk council. In it, the province committed to sharing 45 per cent of the government revenues from forestry stumpage, 40 per cent of the annual mining tax and royalties from active mines, and 45 per cent from future mines.
When PC leader Doug Ford was in town earlier this week, he also promised revenue sharing for northern resources. Watch his full speech here.
Bisson said it's the NDP who first raised the idea.
“We are talking about real revenue sharing with First Nations, that’s about $40 million of revenue just from mining alone. And that money goes a long way to be able to help First Nations do some of the things that we take for granted in places like Timmins,” Bisson said.
When it comes to energy prices, the NDP is also promising to cut hydro bills by 30 per cent by bringing Hydro One back into public hands.
Bisson noted that the organization generates revenue for the province.
“You start using some of that money to start buying back Hydro One, so that rather than us only owning 47 per cent, you end up owning over 50 per cent — that gives you control of the board. Then you can do things like fix the salaries of those CEOs at $6.5 million, it allows you to get rid of the differential price of having to pay more during the day than you do at night, it allows you to fix the distribution charges that we’re getting on our hydro bill where people pay more for distribution than they do for the electricity,” he said.
The writ for the June 7 election will drop next week.
For the new riding of Timmins, there are four people vying for the seat at Queen’s Park.
Bisson is the incumbent, the PC candidate is Yvan Genier, Mickey Auger was acclaimed for the Liberals, and the Northern Ontario Party candidate is Gary Schaap.
You can read the full NDP Northern Ontario platform here.
