Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli wasn’t nearly as positive about Kathleen Wynne’s visit to North Bay on Friday like many others in attendance. For him, Wynne’s purpose was to change perception surrounding her government’s past actions in the north.
“Despite disingenuous efforts by Premier Kathleen Wynne to rewrite history, the fact remains – her government has repeatedly failed Northern Ontario,” he said. “While the Premier speaks of a commitment to the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, it was her Liberal government that actively sought to divest or liquidate it through a fire sale.”
During her visit, Wynne praised the ONR during the ribbon-cutting of the first of sixteen refurbished Polar Bear Express passenger cars.
Both she and Northern Development and Mines Minister, Michael Gravelle, toured the ONR Refurbishment and Repair Centre on McIntyre Street and congratulated the workers on a successful first step in their grand refurbishment project.
Fedeli said she talked a good game on Friday over the importance of the Ontario Northland, but that it served only to cover up the past.
“I remind the Premier that she only retreated from the reckless divestment of ONTC when the Auditor General disclosed her government’s phony accounting – a plan the Liberals claimed would save $265 million, which actually would cost taxpayers $820 million,” he said.
“Premier Wynne’s attempts to rewrite history once again demonstrates that she is only interested in benefiting the Liberal Party and not the people of Northern Ontario.”
Fedeli believes Wynne’s Northern Tour to be late, considering the time the Provincial Conservative’s leader has spent in Northern Ontario.
“Our leader, Patrick Brown has been in the north 20 times now and it’s the Premier playing catch-up,” he said.
“She’ll come along for a week and do a drive by of Norther Ontario and we’ll be back in the legislature in September and it will be business as usual. They’ll continue to raise hydro rates and ignore the needs of the North as we’ve seen blatantly over the last 13 years.”
