Peggy Revell
Investment in infrastructure, lower taxes, and stopping the HST were just a few of the many messages Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and Randy Hillier, his party’s critic for northern development, mines and forestry, brought with them to a stop in Fort Frances last Thursday.
Meeting with local Chamber of Commerce members and community leaders at La Place Rendez-Vous, the pair were in the region to promote and receive feedback on the party’s recently-released northern job plan.
“The north is important,” Hillier told those on hand. “It’s important to me, it’s important to Tim, it’s important to our party.
“We recognize that to realize the prosperity of the north, to realize just what it is to be in the north, Queen’s Park can’t be making all the decisions about what’s happening up here,” added the MPP for the riding of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington in southeastern Ontario.
“There is a role, an important role, a significant role for the people of the north to be involved in the making of the decisions of the north,” Hillier said.
“We’ll be bringing out more policies, and hearing and seeking the advice and guidance of people of the north on how to fix the problems that Queen’s Park brings up here,” he vowed before handing the podium over to Hudak.
Slamming the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty, Hudak highlighted his own accomplishments while serving as minister of northern development and mines, as well as tourism, under previous Conservative governments.
“But as I come back to Fort Frances and Northwestern Ontario, I’m saddened by some of the challenges that we’ve seen,” he said.
“The massive layoffs and mill closures, and quite frankly a provincial government that seems to think that the Province of Ontario comes to a screeching halt at Highway 7 outside of Barrie.
“I think we need to take Northern Ontario down an entirely different path,” Hudak stressed, accusing the Liberal government of “shutting the door” on future development through such things as Bill 101, which “bars development” on land north of the 51st parallel.
“Instead of higher taxes on families and businesses, a far-sighted government would recognize Northern Ontario communities are poised to take advantage of the growing demand for resources we can expect from developing economies and a recovering U.S. economy,” remarked Hudak, pointing to the economic growth that has been seen in Saskatchewan.
Investment in infrastructure in the north for roads, bridges, and highways, as well as high-speed Internet and communications, also are a part of the PC plan, Hudak noted, along with opening up different revenue sources.
“For example, we believe that government should make it easier to pursue responsible residential, tourism, [and] industrial projects on Crown lands,” Hudak explained.
“And in return, the government would mandate that the revenues from that Crown land developments would be specifically reinvested into northern projects, and that local municipalities and First Nations’ leadership would be eligible for a share of the royalties that stem from that new Crown land development.”
As examples of what the PCs believe need to be done, Hudak pointed to their small business job plan, which includes a one-year payroll tax holiday for small businesses, suspending the land transfer tax, and a red tape commission.
Later fielding questions from local businesspeople, one of the biggest concerns brought up was the move to Harmonized Sales Tax by the province.
With new items being included in the HST—such as for gasoline—those in attendance expressed fears that residents in the district would do their shopping south of the border.
There also were questions about the PST exemptions for First Nation people, with the concern that if there no longer was a point of sale rebate and receipts would have to be submitted, many simply would cross the border to shop.
“We all know that Dalton McGuinty’s HST will hit Northern Ontario families disproportionately harder than those in the south,” noted Hudak, whose caucus has opposed the HST.
“After all, an eight percent tax on heat for your home, gas for your car, is going to out particular challenges on northern families.”
While the federal Conservative government also has pushed for HST, Hudak said the move to have HST in Ontario has “Dalton McGuinty’s fingerprints all over it,” noting that when other provinces have switched to HST, they have dropped the amount taxed.
“Dalton McGuinty is unique among premiers in keeping that exact same eight percent rate and slapping it down on new goods,” Hudak said.
“It’s another greedy tax grab,” he charged.
