Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath visited Sault Ste. Marie Saturday to meet with Mayor Debbie Amaroso and the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce, while also taking part in Bon Soo activities and meeting with local sports enthusiasts at the Soo Curlers Association.
Horwath, speaking to SooToday.com, says her party will make northern Ontario concerns a priority when the provincial Legislature re-opens for business under new Liberal leader and Premier Kathleen Wynne.
Among those concerns, Horwath said, is the fear of losing good-paying jobs at Sault Ste. Marie’s Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) office, as the province carries out its’ modernization of the facility.
Horwath said concern over OLG jobs “was the first order of business” at a meeting with Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Debbie Amaroso when the two met Saturday morning.
The OLG’s modernization process involves bringing in private sector partners to operate OLG facilities, such as the OLG office at Bondar Place and Casino Sault Ste. Marie.
“We’re very concerned with what the government has decided to do with the OLG,” Horwath told us.
“We think they’ve absconded from their responsibility in terms of governance and they’ve simply let all of these decisions, which I believe are public policy decisions, to be made by the OLG, which is putting the squeeze on communities and not allowing for democratic process.”
Horwath said she will be lobbying for the protection of Sault Ste. Marie jobs as the OLG modernizes.
“I’ve spoken to Mayor Amaroso about this, but I’ve filed my own motion in the Legislature, asking the government to put a hold on this whole process until there’s a much better opportunity for input and dialogue with communities that are being affected, and that they tell the OLG to back off with the pressure tactics that are creating such havoc right now.”
Despite constant assurances from the federal government that Canada is doing relatively well economically in comparison with other nations, it is clear that people are losing their jobs at an alarming rate, as Sault Ste. Marie has seen this week, with more layoffs announced at Tenaris Algoma Tubes.
What is the Ontario NDP’s job creation strategy?
Horwath told us “we need to give tax credits to businesses for job creation…so if you hire new workers, you get a tax credit for that. If you invest in Ontario, you get a tax credit for that, and that way, companies won’t walk away.”
Jabbing both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, Horwath said “we’ve watched over a decade now while the other two parties have been relying on corporate tax cuts to create jobs. They haven’t worked. The HST was supposed to bring us 600,000 jobs in the province, but it hasn’t.”
Political pundits have speculated if Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Horwath’s NDP will pounce on incoming Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal minority government as soon as possible and force a provincial election.
Horwath said that’s up to Kathleen Wynne.
“My interest is trying to get some results for the people of this province. I believe I was able to do that with Dalton McGuinty. I’m hopeful that Kathleen Wynne will work with me to get things done for Ontarians. We were able to make the last budget a lot more fair, to Ontarians and their families, and I’m hopeful of things we want to achieve in this session.”
Horwath continued “there’s got to be a lot of willingness to come clean on the gas plant issue in Mississauga and Oakville. We’re not going to be able to move forward until the people of Ontario get the answers they deserve, and I’ve given Kathleen Wynne an opportunity to take that rancorous debate out of the Legislature with an independent public inquiry process, and I think it’s a productive idea she should not dismiss,”
Horwath emphasized the Liberal minority government will survive and Ontarians will be spared from a trip to the polls if Kathleen Wynne is committed to working with the opposition parties at Queen’s Park.
“It should be incumbent on all of us to give the people what they asked for in the last election in 2011, which is a minority legislature, to get some minority results, to get the parties to work more closely together.”
“If it becomes clear that can’t be done, it’ll become clear what will happen…but I think we should all roll up our sleeves to get things done for Ontarians.”
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