With Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Sault Ste. Marie MPP and Minister of Natural Resources David Orazietti and most of the Ontario cabinet in town at once for one day only, it’s a bit of a challenge to get to speak with each one of them.
But, we did our best!
As reported earlier Friday by SooToday.com, we spoke with Wynne and Orazietti on the Premier’s new Northern cabinet committee.
We caught up with Education Minister Liz Sandals cutting the ribbon at the new Holy Cross Elementary School in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, before the team went into a cabinet meeting at Bondar Place, we spoke with Transportation Minister Glen Murray (shown) and Health Minister Deb Matthews.
We asked Murray if the government would rethink its’ unexpected decision to end 75 percent of grant funding to help maintain Sault Ste. Marie’s connecting links (vital commercial roadways that lead into, through and out of the city).
A letter to the City received only last month from former Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli stated that funding source has been discontinued, leaving Sault taxpayers to foot the entire bill for maintenance of the connecting links, thereby pushing already long-awaited local street repairs further down the priority list.
That funding has been replaced by the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII), but Sault Ste. Marie will face stiff competition from other Ontario communities for MIII funding, which amounts to only $90 million for the entire province.
City CAO Joe Fratesi told SooToday.com last week the City would be appealing to Orazietti and the MTO for a possible exception clause for Sault Ste. Marie, with its significant amount of connecting links and connection to the U.S. markets via the International Bridge.
Murray did not mention an exception clause, but told SooToday.com “I spoke this morning with Mayor Debbie Amaroso and Mr. Fratesi and we had a very good conversation.”
“We talked about how MIII can solve some of these problems, but we agreed it’s not going to solve all of them. We agreed also that we need a new funding model, a new revenue tool. The Premier has talked about dedicating revenue tools for roads and highways, and that will be ready for next year’s budget.”
“My job over the next six months is to find those new funding tools.”
“We’ve spent $13 billion on highways this past year. We talked about how we can better position that money to better meet the Sault’s needs. We shook hands and had a very good conversation, we agreed existing funding wasn’t a sufficient solution for Sault Ste. Marie, and we agreed that in the next year we would have an agreement to solve the problem.”
Murray said “Mayor Amaroso showed some real leadership and I’m very appreciative of that, and I think we’ll have some good news on this issue when I’m back in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Murray told us he will take many three-day trips to various communities in every region of the province to address roadway funding issues.
Both Murray and Orazietti said the federal government, which had a traditional 50-50 share of highway funding with Ontario, needs to step up to the plate and fulfill its’ previous funding commitments.
Murray said “they (the federal government) have absolutely abandoned us, especially in Northern and remote areas. We’re spending $13 billion in Ontario, the federal government is only spending $6 billion, so one of the things I’m going to be working on with Mayors in the North is try to get the feds back to their traditional role.”
Regarding health care issues, Health Minister Deb Matthews and Orazietti were clearly enthused about an increased availability of family doctors and nurse practitioners in Sault Ste. Marie and reduced wait times for certain procedures at Sault Area Hospital.
Will certain medical procedures be de-listed from OHIP coverage?
Matthews told us “our action plan is based on evidence. If there’s something that benefits patients, we will fund it. Vitamin D testing for example…the evidence is overwhelming that healthy people don’t benefit from Vitamin D testing, we de-listed that.”
“We want to invest more in home care, community care, lots of things we want to spend on, so we have to follow the evidence.”
Matthews stated the province is committed to universal healthcare, and to protect the health care needs of an ageing population.
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