By Bob Hutcheson
The residents of Parry Sound-Muskoka have been fortunate in electing the Conservative Party over the years. They have rewarded us in Huntsville alone with our current hospital, our new Fairvern Nursing Home and expansion to 160 beds, as well as a full-service, acute-care hospital in Huntsville plus one in Bracebridge. Graydon Smith was very helpful in getting us the new Fairvern and the new hospital improvements. Conservatives have also provided us with the Summit Centre and all of its expanded facilities.
They addressed long-standing funding shortfalls to small- and medium-sized hospitals including both MAHC (Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare and WPSHC (West Parry Sound Health Centre) after lobbying by Norm Miller and other rural caucus members.
They provided $4.1 million in Build Back Better funding after floods in our region, to build more resilient roads, bridges, culverts, etc.; $6.7 million in social services relief funding during the pandemic; and provided funding for municipal modernization projects like e-permitting systems. They launched community paramedicine programs in both Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts – $3.25 M in Muskoka, $2.9 M in Parry Sound.
The Conservatives ensured numerous investments in community and recreational centres including $23 million in the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) toward the Parry Sound Pool and Wellness Centre, $16 million in provincial funding toward the Bracebridge Multiuse Centre and $500,000 toward, arena upgrades in both Baysville and SSJ arenas, as well as in dozens of smaller projects.
They increased funding to long-term care facilities to hire more staff to start to bring care up to four hours per resident per day – $8.4 million more in annualized funding for long-term care facilities in Parry Sound-Muskoka, and to help fill those positions – opened up accelerated, free tuition PSW training spaces at Georgian College, including at their Bracebridge campus
Other infrastructure investments were made as in water projects, such as $1.5M to the South River Watermain and Lift Pump project, $1.6M to the Bracebridge water supply resiliency project and $900,000 to the Shawanaga Water Treatment Plant, plus investments in roads and bridges such as the Black Bridge in Bracebridge and in transit projects like the Huntsville Ridership Growth Plan. $6 million was dedicated to Broadband projects across the riding plus funding for a larger a project that covers parts of South Muskoka as well as Simcoe County. $5 Million was invested in the Parry Sound Airport to expand the runway and bring more business to that area.
The Conservatives have committed to bringing passenger rail back to northeastern Ontario including Muskoka, and have invested $5 million into projects to protect the Muskoka River Watershed – projects suggested by the Muskoka Watershed Advisory Group
Our PC government is also implementing product stewardship making the producers of packaging and waste responsible for the costs of its recycling or disposal. This will take the costs of the blue box program off the backs of municipalities and should encourage producers to use less packaging.
It is under the Government of another Party that we lost grants, because we our region was taken out of “Northern Ontario”.
By electing Graydon Smith we will be assured that Parry Sound-Muskoka will have a strong and effective voice within the next government. This is especially important now, because it is this PC government that to give us two new hospitals in Muskoka. The last thing we want to do is to lose that.
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MARTINA SCHROER says
I thought that the Doppler is supposed to be ‘neutral’ with regards to the election?
Two articles obviously supporting the Conservatives?
It’s not democratic in my mind.
Martina Schroer
Bob Braan says
It’s no wonder green Matt Richter signs are everywhere.
Just like Doug Ford, Graydon Smith is all about development at any cost.
Pave the greenbelt and turn Muskoka forests into Mississauga barrens as fast as possible.
Toronto protects their trees better than Muskoka.
There are beautiful homes surrounded by large trees near downtown Toronto.
Neighbours and residents and conservation can GTH.
Forget zoning and planning rules.
That’s all just red tape.
Developers know rules will be changed to suit whatever they want.
Not the other way around.
Build anything, anywhere.
Starting with wiping out trees needlessly in many areas of Bracebridge, for example.
Leaving it completely barren for many years.
Across from Home Depot, near the new high school and most recently at Travelodge along the road where you can’t build anyway.
Disaster.
It’s no wonder green Matt Richter signs are everywhere.
Why would anyone vote Conservative?
Allen Markle says
The Conservatives have forever done the minimum for Parry Sound/ Muskoka. And have done it again.
They had someone new ‘appointed’ before the previous member had even faded away.
But the cards/choices/leaders, in the hand Ontario voters have been dealt reminds me of an old character actor. His stage name was Slim Pickens. Kinda’ like what we got now.
Another commenter on Doppler is constantly pointing to the failures of this PC government when it comes to health care (take a bow Anna-Lise); for me it is a broader spectrum of short-falls and ‘failures to perform’.
But regarding health care: if a parent had abandon a child, to fend as they could, in facilities such as our elders perished in, those parents would surely have been charged with abandonment.
I don’t suppose that the corporations that ran such facilities missed even a single payment from the Ford government.
And yet, I know there are those who say “But who else?”
That is sad.
We don’t demand options, so we don’t get any.
Slim pickin’s.
Lynn Bennett says
Developers Rule in Muskoka!!! So very sad!!!
I voted for Matt Richter.
As for all the items mentioned in the article above I think that is the job of government. And sorry where is the list of all that was committed and not delivered. And what about all the things Ford and his team stopped doing or undid — like LTC inspections!!!
Terry McCaffery says
I am p****d!!! You know the PC’s are running scared if they are using fear as a modus operandi to secure votes for Graydon Smith! I am sick and tired of “hard-nosed” politics: if you don’t elect the PC candidate, our chance of getting any hospital funding is greatly diminished! The Ford family has had vacation property in Muskoka for years and Doug Ford knows full well the importance of modernizing both Bracebridge and Huntsville hospital sites to the locals! It would be to his own family’s benefit and to the citizens of Bracebridge/Huntsville to fulfill his commitment to upgrade our hospitals! If Matt Richter is elected in our riding and Ford pulls the plug on any promised hospital financing, the PC’s will risk losing support in our area for years to come! People have long memories if they feel slighted! Politics in our province must change; the old way of doing things: do this and you will get that is anachronistic and doesn’t behoove a political party of any stripe! With the huge climate crisis and societal issues we are currently facing in our province, playing politics cannot be tolerated anymore!