With the Ontario election just over a week away, three of Peterborough-Kawartha’s five candidates seeking a Queen’s Park seat put forward their respective party’s positions on a wide range of challenging issues during a debate at the Market Hall in downtown Peterborough on Tuesday night (February 18).
NDP candidate Jen Deck, Green Party candidate Lucas Graham, and Progressive Conservative candidate Dave Smith participated in the debate, hosted by the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders’ Association, the Central Lakes Association of Realtors, the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), the Peterborough and District Construction Association, and Your TV.
While the debate was billed as an opportunity to hear each candidate’s views on business-related issues, the candidates found themselves addressing questions around pretty much anything but — including homelessness, access to health care, agricultural land protection, and assistance for first-time home buyers.
A debate requirement that only parties currently represented in the legislature could participate saw New Blue Party candidate Andrew Roudny relegated to the sidelines. He was, however, allowed a brief opening statement to introduce himself and his platform.
Meanwhile, Liberal candidate Adam Hopkins had posted on social media earlier in the day that he wouldn’t be able to attend due to a personal family matter that took him out of the city.
As is often the case, Smith as the incumbent MPP found himself on the defensive as both Deck and Graham took aim at the ruling Conservatives’ track record. With that opportunity denied them a week ago when Smith was a no-show at another debate, they both took full advantage.
“Thirty years of Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to prepare us so that we can weather the storm we know is coming and that storm, of course, is called Donald Trump,” said Deck.
“(Premier) Ford doesn’t care about local small, medium, or even large businesses. He’s chasing the approval of mega-corporations and he’s on their side. He’s still pushing the long-debunked myth of trickle-down economics. The Liberals, meanwhile, are still proposing the same kind of politics as the last time they were in office, but we remember that (hospital) hallway medicine began under their watch.”
“It’s time for a bold approach and the NDP has a plan. We’re ready to tackle the problems you tell us need fixing, including investments in health care and education, getting back into the business of building homes that are affordable, properly resourcing the court system so our jails aren’t clogged with pretrial detentions, and properly resourcing landlord and tenant boards so that both landlords and tenants get a timely hearing.”
Graham, meanwhile, reiterated what he has said throughout this campaign.
“I’m running to be your next MPP because I believe in fairness … a fair housing market, a fair economy, and a fair approach to development that supports our communities and the businesses that build them,” he said.
“For too long, we’ve had governments that pick winners and losers, giving handouts to massive developers while make it harder for small and mid-sized builders to get projects approved. We’ve seen a housing market that rewards speculators while shutting out first-time home buyers. And we’ve seen small businesses struggle while corporate giants while get tax breaks. That’s not fairness. That’s a system that’s rigged.”
“The Green Party and I believe that a strong Peterborough-Kawartha is built on fairness. That means cutting red tape for the right kinds of development; homes people can actually afford built in communities where people want to live. It means working with home builders and realtors to speed up approvals and modernize zoning while cracking down on corporate investors who treat out housing market like a stock exchange. It also means supporting small businesses and downtown revitalization, not just throwing money at urban sprawl and hoping for the best.”
In response, Smith said the many of the fruits of the Conservatives’ work are yet to ripen but will. He pointed to the doctor shortage as an example.
“When I was first elected, we (Peterborough-Kawartha) were short 17 doctors,” he noted.
“We didn’t have was a tool to attract doctors, so what we did was increase the number of university seats to train doctors by 400. It takes five to seven years for a doctor to get trained. We’re starting to see the results of the first cohort that graduated this past June, so help is on the way. It just takes some time to get those physicians, those nurses, those nurse practitioners trained.”
“When we look at what has happened locally, we provided funding for the CMHA for mobile mental health and addiction buses. That’s not going to solve a problem overnight. It is ongoing. Redpath has been funded. On an annual basis, 300 individuals suffering from an addictions challenge will be able to through that program. We have a detox and rehab centre, the first of its kind in Peterborough, that will open at the end of March. These are all things we’re building upon. The situation will be getting better for us.”
As the debate wound down, moderator Rebecca Schillemat, executive officer of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders’ Association, asked each candidate what one issue they will bring to Queen’s Park above all others.
“We’ve got 300 people permanently homeless right now in Peterborough,” noted Graham.
“We’ve got already a really great non-profit program called PATH — Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes. A big part of what the Green Party is proposing is making more of those types of units and putting them on provincial land that’s not being used for anything, allowing them to build more and immediately get people off the streets into these supportive houses with wraparound services, including addiction and mental health care.”
“I want to make sure that people are able to have a warm, safe place to sleep at night. That’s going to be my number one priority when I get to Queen’s Park.”
Deck, whose background is in education, said “It is heartbreaking to watch kids suffer for lack of mental health supports and other health care supports. This is unacceptable.”
“At the (party) leaders’ debate (on Monday night), Doug Ford talked about cracking down on youth crime. He described a 16-year-old doing an armed robbery. But you know what? Seven years ago, that 16-year-old was nine and we were crying out for supports.”
“Kids are poor. They are hungry. They need mental health supports. They have witnessed trauma. They need our help and we are failing them. That’s what I would bring to Queen’s Park.”
As for his priority, Smith answered “Employment, employment, employment, employment. If you don’t have a strong economy, you don’t have the money to do anything else.”
“What we’re seeing in Peterborough is property taxes going up significantly because we don’t have the employment base. The commercial and industrial property taxpayer pays one-and-a-half times what the residential taxpayer does. We need to make sure those kids that are graduating from Trent University and Fleming College don’t have to leave our community to have a job, but there simply (aren’t) employment opportunities here.”
“We have to get employment opportunities for people in this community again so that they have hope, so that we have the money to spend on the different things that we need to spend that money on. We don’t have that right now. What I’ll be doing is working on finding ways to have more employment opportunities in the greater Peterborough area.”
Post-debate, Smith said he wasn’t surprised by his opponents targeting him based on the positions of his political boss rather than on what he has accomplished for the riding as MPP.
“It’s the same for the other candidates,” he said. “If (NDP leader) Marit Stiles were to stand up and say something controversial, that’s going to affect Jen Deck. If (Liberal leader) Bonnie Crombie says something that’s controversial, that’s going to affect Adam Hopkins. If (Green Party leader) Mike Schreiner says something that’s controversial, that’s going to affect Lucas Graham. We’re all in the same boat.”
“The only difference is I have a track record where people can look at what I’ve done locally and make a decision. Do they want to vote locally, or do they want to vote based on the provincial side of things?”
Next up for the candidates is an event from 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday (February 20) at the Marshland Centre on Hague Boulevard in Lakefield. Billed as “Coffee with the Candidates,” it offers the chance for voters to chat one-on-one with each. Rescheduled from last Thursday because of inclement weather, the event being hosted by most of the same groups that hosted Tuesday night’s debate.
