Peggy Revell
John Rafferty’s schedule has been filled since being elected as the new MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River two weeks ago.
“It’s sort of been nose to the grindstone right after the day of the election,” said Rafferty, noting he’s already had people approaching him for help on various issues.
Sorting out logistics also has been taking up much of this time, he added.
Besides his main office on Parliament Hill, Rafferty also plans to open three constituency offices across the riding—one in Thunder Bay, one in Atikokan, and the third here in Fort Frances.
He hopes to have the offices, staff, and everything up and running by mid-November.
“But I would like to say that people who have ongoing and active files with [former MP] Ken Boshcoff, if they don’t have copies of their files, they need to get them from Boshcoff because they don’t just come to me,” he stressed.
Papers and files from a former MP’s offices are not automatically directed to the incoming MP’s office, he explained, but instead sent to the House of Commons, where they are destroyed.
So if people want him to continue with any issues they previously had brought forward, getting copies of those files are important, Rafferty said.
Rafferty’s official swearing-in took place today in Ottawa.
“It’s funny because everything is up in the air,” he noted. “We don’t even know when we’re going back. We assume we’re going back in November, but the prime minister hasn’t said anything.”
Rafferty already has had some orientation in Ottawa, as well as a chance to meet with all the other NDP MPs, including those from Northern Ontario.
“There will be a Northern Ontario caucus and we’ll meet on a regular basis,” he stressed, noting the seven NDP MPs from Northern Ontario already have met once and will be meeting again this week to hopefully set the priorities they plan to work on together.
The first and foremost priority Rafferty sees needing to be addressed is the economy. What hasn’t changed since the election is the platform of sustaining and creating jobs, as well as making life in Northern Ontario more affordable, he said.
“So one of the things that I want to work on is a strategy for small business to help give small businesses the tools to sustain jobs and create jobs,” said Rafferty. What will have the biggest impact on Northern Ontario is focusing on supporting small businesses, he remarked, as opposed to larger corporations.
“That doesn’t mean supporting them necessarily in cash, it means supporting them in terms of, say, loan guarantees, which really doesn’t cost the government any money,” he explained. “We’re guaranteeing that they’re going to be good for it.
“Because with what’s happening sort of financially now, credit is harder to get for a small business, so we have to make sure that they have the tools to expand and grow.”
And with both the provincial and federal governments now projecting the possibility of deficit budgets, Rafferty said voters have to make sure the governments don’t use the financial situation as an excuse to not live up to their election promises, such as ignoring spending promised to regions of the country like Northern Ontario.
“I guess we just have to wait and see what Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Harper come up with in the end,” he said.
“I think we have to have the safety net here that people deserve and expect, and I don’t know how much of Mr. Harper’s talk is just rhetoric or whether he actually does know what’s going on,” Rafferty added, noting Harper had downplayed the amount of economic turmoil Canada will face during the election campaign.
“I think we’re going to have to watch Mr. Harper very carefully.”
