"Unlike Kathleen Wynne, where they set policy behind closed doors at Queen's Park, I want to engage the broader membership. I want to make sure we listen to Ontarians and that means going to every town in Ontario and understanding that there are good ideas outside the bubble of Queen's Park," said Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leader Patrick Brown, Wednesday.
Brown, the Leader of the Opposition to Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government gave a 20-minute speech Wednesday afternoon to wrap up day one of the FONOM/Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MMA) Northeastern Municipal Conference, touching on such topics as forestry, mining, the recent budget, and Hydro One.
"I remember asking the Liberals about skyrocketing hydro rates," said Brown, "and the Energy Minister at the time, Bob Chiarelli said 'What are you talking about skyrocketing rates? Northern Ontario has some of the lowest energy rates in North America.' They were living in their own fantasy land.
"Wherever I go in Northern Ontario, I hear about how hydro rates make [the region] less competitive."
Brown's speech elaborated on the challenges facing northerners, what he deemed to be serious issues he was alerted to by the voters that he has crossed paths with or from his Finance Critic, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli. Brown, who has ties to the region, promised that the problems of Northern Ontarians would not fall on deaf ears if he were elected premier.
Brown noted that he had visited Northern Ontario more than 20 times since his successful leadership bid and that he relies heavily on input from Fedeli when formulating a vision for the region as the next election approaches in just over one year. Brown also reminded that his first act as leader of the party in May 2015 was to contact Fedeli and plan a visit to the Ring of Fire.
"We've given speeches about policy directions we'd like to take the province, obviously I want to have a policy conference [...] but we've certainly said we would not continue with the fire sale of Hydro One. We have said that we would rip up the unmitigated disaster that is the green energy contract. We'd rein in offensive executive salaries, stop spilling water power.
"We've made a clear commitment that we'd put a moratorium on school closures, on health care we want to see a greater emphasis on front-line care, not this bloated administration. We'd stop the hiring of these 80 new health care VPs and put that money into front-line care to nurses and physicians," said Brown.
The conference is being held at Nipissing University. NDP leader Andrea Horwath will speak at 8 a.m. Thursday and later that afternoon, Premier Wynne will address the delegates at 1:15 p.m. The Premier is also making an announcement at One Kids Place Thursday morning. BayToday will cover all of these events.
