PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA FEDERAL ELECTION 2019
The environment and how the candidates running in the October 21 election plan on paying for their campaign promises seemed to be top of mind for Rotarians at the Rotary Club of Huntsville on Wednesday.
Four candidates attended their luncheon at the Legion, talked a bit about their background and took a few questions from those present.
Fiscal responsibility
Nothing seemed to set the candidates apart more than the question about how they would pay for promises made.
Liberal candidate Trisha Cowie did not think spending into a deficit position was such a bad thing. “Our government has been very upfront and saying ‘we are doing deficit spending.’ They said that in 2015 and we were still voted in at that point because people recognized that we needed to make these investments now, or when are we going to do it?” she asked. “And when we’re looking at the overall deficit versus what the country is bringing in on an annual basis, it’s a very small amount. I know the numbers sound big but overall what we’re bringing in, the deficit is very reasonable and we’re being upfront about it which I think is really important.”
Cowie added that she does not like to talk about taxes as a bad thing because “it brings us things like public education, it brings us our parks, it brings us recreation, it brings us our health care,” she said. “We do have to be responsible with it. We have to have a strong economy, which we do. We have it growing and exceeding expectations… we’ve created 1.1 million jobs and we’re continuing to see these trends go on… if we’re not going to be making these investments now then when are we going to do it?”
Green candidate Gord Miller said: “We don’t have a lot of goodies in our platform.” Miller invited those present to take a look at the party platform, which he said was fully costed and vetted. “It’s all laid out if you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of the dollar but there is money for projects. We bought a pipeline, a Trans Mountain pipeline with taxpayer money for $4 billion,” he said, adding that billions more would be spent on expansion. “Well, I don’t know where that money is coming from but there’s obviously some slough in the expenditure side.”
He criticized the subsidization of the fossil fuel industry. He said Canada made an international commitment to stop doing that, “we have not honoured it. We give them tax deferrals, we defer their royalty payments and we give them direct subsidies toward that industry.” That is something that a Green government would no longer do, said Miller.
Conservative candidate Scott Aitchison said governments don’t have money and they don’t create jobs. “They take your money and then they redistribute it to other people, and that’s great, we’ve all agreed, I think, that there are certain things that government should do for people. We should work collectively and pool our resources for government to take care of things,” he said. “I would say that the Conservative approach generally speaking is for you to keep more of your money, and if I was to be really frank about politics in general, I think part of the problem we have is that you have had successive governments over many, many decades that have never looked beyond the next election cycle and as a result we have governments that try to be all things to all people and try to do everything, and that’s great but we can’t afford it.”
Aitchison said at the end of the day government “is there to serve us and I think that an approach that says we need to make life a little more affordable for Canadians is the right approach, and set our priorities so that we can afford to do it. Deficit financing is maybe appropriate when the economy is struggling and we need to stimulate things but borrowing heavily when the economy’s on fire, just reduces the amount of fiscal room you have to stimulate things when things do go south.”
Aitchison said someone has to pay for every dollar spent. “Everyone’s all mad about Doug Ford, our debt in Ontario is 300 billion dollars, who’s paying for that? Someone has to pay. Every nickel we spend paying down debt, paying down the deficits that have been built up by Liberals over the years, and Conservatives, someone has to pay for it. It’s money we’re not spending on health care, money we’re not spending on education, so someone has to pay. This is what drives me nuts. Everybody wants to promise and promise and promise but they’re not realistic about it and so this is my issue with government at all levels, someone has to pay so you have to set priorities.”
NDP candidate Tom Young said his party has no intention of further taxing lower and middle-class taxpayers; the money will come from the rich. “You’re already paying for services that you deserve. What we would be looking at more so is how the government is actually spending the money.”
He said if Canada is serious about climate change it shouldn’t be buying pipelines. In terms of subsidies to big oil and pharmaceutical companies, he said: “We are just making the rich richer and that’s wrong. So we’ve got to look at where we’re spending the money first, start clawing back on that, not coming to you the people who are living paycheque to paycheque or month to month and asking you for more money, that’s just the wrong place to go. Go to the people that have the money, and that’s where we’re going to get it from.”
Oil production, how to transition and a tax on carbon
The candidates were also asked about the environment. Specifically, with major global oil reserves expected to be depleted in less than 20 years, does Canada have a “moral” obligation to produce the oil that the world is going to need until it transitions away from fossil fuels, particularly in the developing world?
Cowie
Cowie said she’s proud of the Liberal platform because it refers to a transition period. She said addressing the environment is important for future generations but there are also people who are struggling today. “So the environment, while it’s a top priority, it’s not the only priority,” she said.
She said depriving poor countries of what could be a life source for them in terms of oil, does not seem morally right. “Is there other ways that we can possibly provide assistance to them? That would be something that I’d be looking into more on… we’re all in this together in a global manner and we really have to focus on the interests that we’re balancing.”
You can hear more about what Cowie had to say about the carbon tax here:
Miller
Miller said there’s a cap on how much CO2 can be pumped into the atmosphere. He said we can’t go on burning oil, coal and natural gas forever. He said if we continue, “the climate crisis will become so acute that all of this doesn’t matter. The reality is we do have an envelope, we know what the carbon budget [is]… right now we’re burning a hundred million barrels a day of petroleum, it doesn’t allow us to burn that into the future. We have to get off oil.”
He said there are other alternatives and spoke of sugar cane ethanol, which he said is seven times more efficient than corn ethanol and can be grown in nations finding it difficult to pay for their oil purchases.
He said cars that were supposed to take ethanol fuel were built in North America. “That was supposed to go international. Flex-fuel burns up to 85 per cent ethanol, and that was specifically to help those countries but you know what, there is no 85 per cent ethanol for sale.” Miller said he looked into it when he was environment commissioner and there was one station in Toronto. “The petroleum company stopped that program. They don’t give a damn about those third world nations… if they wanted to help those nations they’d have them on ethanol now. So it’s a far more complex picture. We can get off petroleum. We have to.”
Here’s more on that from Miller:
Young
Young said the climate crisis is a global problem and if we don’t do something about getting off petroleum, “then we’re not going to be around anyways, eventually. We need the climate crisis fixed.” He added that Canada needs to develop ways to produce cleaner energy and help the developing world do the same.
Below is more on this from Young:
Aitchison
Aitchison said one of the things he loves about the Green Party is that it has done a really good job of “making all Canadians aware of the issue we’re facing and that’s important. I think their plan could bankrupt us but that’s a different story.”
He said it will take time to transition away from fossil fuels but that can be viewed as an opportunity. “That’s one of the reasons why I like the Conservative platform and the proposal for green tax credits for innovation and entrepreneurs to come up with new technologies that will generate green energy, carbon captures. There’s all kinds of technologies that can help us meet our goals but then can also help those countries that are the real big polluters,” said Aitchison. “I realize that on a per capita basis we’re one of the worst. We have the unfortunate disadvantage of having to heat our homes in the winter and that takes a lot. We live in a vast territory, where not everybody has the option just to hop on a subway and go to work,” he said, adding that Canada should be viewing the crisis as an opportunity to innovate.
You can hear more from Aitchison on climate change below:
Immigration
Here’s what the candidates had to say on the topic of immigration:
Aitchison:
Cowie:
Miller:
Young:
There will be an all-candidates forum, hosted by the Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce, at the Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville tonight, September 26. Meet and greet at 6 p.m., forum from 7-9 p.m.
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Bob Slater says
Just remember folks when it comes to Ford’s ONT Government administration and what is being done ..it was the LIBERAL who created the ONT $$$$ mess .. and …the FED Liberals have done the same thing $$$$ to the entire country! Listen careful to what the Liberal candidate has said …not concerned about fiscal responsibility! YIKES! Think folks and vote!
Waldi Frankiewicz says
Bob Slater, please read the article’s text more carefully.Conservative candidate Scott Aitchison says directly that the blame lies on both sides. I quote from his statements: *Everyone’s all mad about Doug Ford, our debt in Ontario is 300 billion dollars, who’s paying for that? Someone has to pay. Every nickel we spend paying down debt, paying down the deficits that have been built up by *Liberals* over the years, and *Conservatives*, someone has to pay for it. It’s money we’re not spending on health care, money we’re not spending on education, so someone has to pay*.
Bob Slater says
Read my comment again! … I did not blame the Conservatives for the Ont mess! And …you do remember the liberals had 15 YEARS in power in ONT? and .. they left power with this … “As of March 31, 2018, the Ontario government’s total debt is projected to be CDN$348.79 billion.” and .. another ‘fun fact’ ..”When the Kathleen Wynne Liberals were defeated in June, it was $325 billion, a 134% increase.” One word … WOW!
Waldi Frankiewicz says
You write in your commentary : *….I did not blame the Conservatives for the Ont mess!*. Over the past few decades, Ontario has been ruled by politicians from different parties and it is they who have done this debt over the past few decades.. King Solomon’s wisdom came from his ability to see both sides of the coin. Don’t forget that.