Local residents had a chance to quiz the sizable field of candidates seeking the Perth-Wellington seat in the June 12 provincial election at a meeting in Alma on May 27.
Seven of the eight candidates were on hand for the meeting, hosted by the Alma Optimist Club and attended by about 60 people.
Freedom Party candidate Robbie Smink was the only no-show and a ninth candidate, Marie Roth of the Equal Parenting Party, dropped her name from the ballot prior to the meeting.
The meeting format allowed candidates opening and closing statements, between which they answered questions submitted by audience members.
Libertarian Scott Marshall opened by stating health care, education and electricity generation are all monopoly services provided by the government in Ontario “and they all have problems” with “fraud, cronyism” and other issues.
While each successive government promises “a new idea or a little tweak” will improve the situation, “they have been saying that since monopolies have existed,” Marshall asserted. He said a Libertarian government would allow increased competition in health care, education and power delivery.
Irma DeVries of the Family Coalition Party said, “the family is the foundation of an orderly society.
“Government needs to take measures to strengthen the family,” said DeVries, adding problems such as substance abuse can be traced to the breakdown of the family.
“If we want a different kind of fruit, we have to plant a different kind of tree,” she stated.
NDP candidate Romayne Smith Fullerton said she “never ever dreamed about being a politician” until two years ago when a London-based company tried to put a sub-surface gravel pit on a flood plain in the St. Marys area where she lives.
Smith Fullerton spearheaded a campaign against the project and feels the experience would help her in the role of advocate for rural communities.
“I figured out that government is a tough job and small town and rural Ontario needs someone who will stick up and advocate for them,” she stated.
Liberal Stewart Skinner said his party has plans for rural Ontario.
“As a farmer I’m very encouraged by the investment we’ve announced for agriculture,” he said, citing a planned $400-million expenditure on food processing facilities as one example.
“Infrastructure is what underpins a successful economy and we need investment to be successful in that regard,” said Skinner, who stated he would serve as a “rural advocate within the Liberal caucus.”
Chris Desjardins of the Green Party said he is “unhappy with the manner in which this vote came about.” He said the election was triggered by other parties for political reasons and will “cost taxpayers $90 million that won’t show up in any budget.
“I would like to bring honesty and integrity back to Queens Park. Stop the insanity,” he stated.
Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Pettapiece, the local incumbent, said during his first term in office he has “worked hard to represent all parts of the riding.”
Pettapiece said the choice voters face in this election is about reducing, or increasing the deficit.
“Do we spend what we have, or do we keep on borrowing?” he asked, adding the province’s deficit is increasing by $1.5 million “every hour while we’re sitting here.”
“I think I should concentrate on the debt,” said independent candidate Matthew Murphy. “I was stunned when I found out that $291 million was the debt of the province of Ontario.”
Corporate farms
Candidates were asked how they would deal with a growing trend toward large, corporate-owned farms in the province, the difficulty of getting started for young farmers and where they stand on marketing boards.
Citing the Libertarian party’s minimal government credo, Marshall said, “as far as corporations buying up farmland, our position would be we don’t believe that the government should be getting involved.”
He said any legislation on the issue could only be complied with by large industries “simply because of the financial burden that is involved in it.” He also added he is “not supportive of marketing boards.”
DeVries said the Family Coalition Party “can’t really tell a corporation not to buy land. That’s a real dilemma in our province. I haven’t got an answer.” She added, “Marketing boards and quotas were a good system when they were implemented because they offered a product year round.”
However, DeVries disagrees with “the commodifying of the quota system” and thinks quota should be “rented” rather than bought and sold.
Smith Fullerton said current planning practices “are not working for us here in the country at all and I really think we need to advocate different types of strategies for different places.”
She also advocated removing caps on risk management programs for farmers, establishing programs to help younger farmers reinvest in agriculture, and reminded the gathering that her party pressured the governing Liberals not to close Kemptville agricultural college.
“What is a corporate farm?” asked Skinner. “At our farm, it’s mom, it’s dad, it’s me, it’s one employee. We’re a corporation. Lots of (farmers) are incorporated, but our decisions are made around a kitchen table, not a boardroom table.”
Skinner said the agriculture industry has “amazing potential for growth,” and the Liberals have asked the industry to step up and take the lead in job creation and other areas of the economy.
Desjardins said his party wants to protect prime farmland.
“The Green Party would protect prime farmland and source water,” he stated.
Pettapiece noted that in his home area (North Perth), $20,000 is not an uncommon price for an acre of land.
“I guess it depends if you’re a buyer or a seller. Farmers are getting older these days and they’ve got to look at the other side of the scale,” he noted.
Regarding quotas, he said they are a part of a free market system.
“There’s value put on it (quota) … I think we have to protect our markets and our free enterprise system.”
Murphy stated, “Accumulation of land by fewer and fewer people has happened many times in history … we can’t let that happen because if you do there’s a disconnect. People become landless. They move to the city and they’ll be on the dole forever. Small freehold, which is the backbone of democracy, has to be protected. How to do that? Let me work on it.”
Power costs
Rising electricity rates were a common theme among questioners.
“We don’t want to see wind power,” said DeVries. “Wind power is the part that is actually creating this crisis.”
DeVries, who has a FIT contract to generate water power on her own property, feels hydro generation is the best route to go and pointed out there are 200 water power sites in the province, largely in the north.
“We need transmission lines that go up north to get that energy back to this part of Ontario.”
Smith Fullerton said the NDP advocates capping power company CEO salaries and amalgamating power agencies “to end parallel bureaucracies.” She also supports asking the auditor general to immediately review FIT power contracts across the province.
Skinner said, “There’s no easy answer on hydro and if someone tells you tomorrow they’re going to lower your bill it’s not possible.” Since 2003, he noted, the Liberal government has invested over $30 billion in infrastructure to get energy from the producer to the end customer.
Desjardins said the Green Party would like to see green energy projects located closer to the point of use to reduce infrastructure needed to transmit power.
“We want to see it closer and community owned,” he stated.
Pettapiece said the PCs would halt future wind turbine projects, without breaking any existing contracts.
“We will stop proliferation of these projects,” Pettapiece said. “We will not break the contracts that already exist and we will get rid of the FIT program.”
Murphy said he believes, “All wind turbines should be put way out into the lakes where, ultimately there is always energy being produced.” He also said hydrogen should be the focus of future energy generation projects.
Marshall said the power generation should be open to competition.
“There should be no such thing as the FIT program,” said Marshall. “The green energy program has driven business out of the country – well, certainly out of the province. It creates a surplus of energy that we end up selling at a loss.”
Horse racing
Candidates were asked for their position on the cancellation of the Slots at the Racetrack program and the impact on the horse industry.
“I live on a horse farm. I know we lost 80,000 jobs (across the industry),” said Smith Fullerton. She called the Liberal government’s handling of the issue “a clear trade-off of rural concerns for city jobs. It’s an enormous industry and it really ought not to have been traded off.”
Skinner responded that, “one of the first issues that Kathleen Wynne tackled was getting horse racing industry back on its feet and a five-year, $500-million plan has been put forward. That’s why there’s horse racing going on just down the road.”
Marshall indicated subsidizing horse racing does not fit into Libertarian views.
“If horse racing is viable then it will survive. It it’s not, then it won’t,” he said.
Desjardins said, “we need to get horse racing going again.”
Pettapiece criticized the NDP for not voting against the budget bill that cancelled the slots program.
“They just let it happen,” he said, adding, “I wish the other two candidates would talk to people in horse racing industry … there won’t be one here if things aren’t fixed.”
“A hundred years ago horse racing was one of most popular activities in North America,” said Murphy. “That’s dropped off dramatically. So we need to look at how attractive it is as an industry. Is it a viable industry on the level it was in the past?”
Wind turbines
Another questioner wanted to know “who is going to stop” forcing wind turbines on rural Ontario to generate surplus power to be sold at a loss.
“We’ve introduced 19 times in the legislature measures to stop the proliferation of wind turbines and we’re always voted down by the liberals and voted down by the NDP,” said Pettapiece.
Smith Fullerton responded, “the 6,000 wind turbines that are about to be perpetuated on us are a done deal. Not even the Conservatives are saying they going to rip that up.” She disputed Pettapiece’s assertion the NDP have blocked Tory efforts to stop turbines. “This is Bill 39. It’s an omnibus bill. It’s not as easy as voting against wind turbines.”
“Put them offshore, make them float, make them store hydrogen, feed them into a natural gas line. It’s completely safe,” said Murphy.
“The Libertarian philosophy on so many of these things is that responsibility has to come back to the local level. Having bureaucrats in Toronto who don’t have to look at them and aren’t really impacted by them by them making decisions makes no sense whatsoever,” said Marshall.
“The FCP would restore the right of municipalities to say ‘I am not a willing host,’” stated DeVries.
Skinner said the first group that he met with after securing the Liberal nomination for the riding was a local wind advocacy group in Listowel.
“I’m not going to stand here and give you the answer you want to hear,” said Skinner. “The Green Energy Act didn’t just look at the next election. It looked 100 years down the road.”
Citing the recent drop in costs that has made solar power viable for many purposes, Skinner explained that for alternative energy sources to become viable, initial investment is needed.
“I’m not opposed to the wind turbines, but I think it was handled incorrectly,” said Desjardins, stressing the need for “smaller ones closer to the point of use. “The way it was introduced it pits neighbor against neighbor and we didn’t need to do that.”
Climate change
Candidates expressed a wide range of views in response to a question suggesting “climate change is biggest challenge facing humanity.”
“I think that we’ve done a good job at starting the process. We are no longer using coal to create electricity in this province. That’s the equivalent of taking seven million cars off the road,” said Skinner.
“Our work is not done in this regard. There’s a lot to do going forward. Some if it is going to come down to good old-fashioned human ingenuity.” He cited a farm near Drayton generating energy using biogas as an example of the type of innovation that will be needed.
Desjardins said the Green Party’s approach would be to “make companies more responsible when extracting raw materials, raise levies and royalties and improve efficiencies. Not giving anything up, just reducing.”
Pettapiece said, “The coal plant closures are certainly something we agree with. That’s something we initiated and I’m glad they were closed down.” However, he stated “hydroelectric power is the greatest source of power that we have” and expressed regret more money hasn’t been put into developing that source.
“It’s too bad that money was wasted on that failed green energy plan.”
Hydrogen power, Murphy feels, is the solution to both Ontario’s high electricity rates and global climate changes issues.
“Hydrogen technology is the only way to go,” he states.
Marshall said climate change is “one of those topics there’s really many ways to look at. The science that is given to the population, especially through the political means, may not be exactly what’s going on. The climate has been changing for four million years. It heats up, it cools down, it heats up, it cools down. There’s no question humanity has an negative impact on these things.”
A Libertarian approach, added Marshall, would involve a “you pollute, you pay,” policy.
DeVries stated, “The climate is always changing. The whole movement toward stopping global warming is a way to promote more government control over your life.”
Smith Fullerton said, “I know a lot of people in here are farmers and I know you are the original stewards of the land. I think most people don’t need scientists to tell us that we are going through climate change and we need to address it.”
She added gasses created through waste disposal could become part of a cleaner solution to energy needs.
