By Seth DuChene
Editor
Hydro rates, infrastructure spending and changes to provincial labour regulations were all top-of-mind for Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown in meeting with a group of party faithful in Napanee on Monday.
Hosted by Hastings-Lennox and Addington PC candidate Daryl Kramp at The Waterfront, Brown lambasted the current Liberal government for missteps in those three key areas, and pledged to take steps to reverse Ontario’s present course if the party is successful in the next provincial election in nine months.
“My motivation is this: I don’t want to settle for an Ontario that’s a have-not province,” he said to his supporters. “I don’t want to settle for an Ontario where we spend more in interest payments than we do on hospitals. I believe that these are all issues we can fix, and if we get our fundamentals right — if we have affordable hydro prices, if we have good roads and infrastructure to get product to market, if we have a competitive labour market — I believe that Ontario can be that province that can be that economic engine of Canada. I know that’s what’s motivating me and that’s what’s motivating Daryl.”
It was on the hydro file that Brown concentrated most of his criticism of the Kathleen Wynne government, suggesting that in saddling Ontario hydro customers with increased hydro rates, the government was putting the Liberal Party ahead of Ontarians. “I think this is very strategic. The 30 mega contracts they signed for energy we do not need — that we have to give away — these deals that they’re keeping secret, they got $1.3 million in donations for the Ontario Liberal Party. I think it was strategic. They wanted to help their friends and Liberal insiders. It doesn’t matter that you’re paying for it,” he said.
If elected, Brown said he’d review energy contracts signed by the government to explore how it might be able to get out from under them, to the benefit of electricity customers and the province’s overall competitiveness. “And if there are exit clauses like there was in the Samsung deal, we’re going to take them. We’re going to make sure that we protect the pocketbooks of Ontario ratepayers,” Brown said.
He also slammed the Liberals for borrowing $93 billion in order to achieve a temporary reduction in hydro bills. “After the next election, hydro rates are going to go up 61 per cent, which will just make the situation dramatically worse,” he said.
Brown said hydro wouldn’t be the only area a PC government would review, promising a value-for-money audit of all government ministries. Infrastructure spending would get particular scrutiny, he added.
“When it comes to infrastructure, according to our auditor general, we don’t measure performance,” he said. “We don’t measure outcomes. We’re spending $190 billion on infrastructure over the next 13 years, and we don’t measure outcomes? The auditor general said that we could be spending 25 per cent over what we need to because we don’t measure performance.”
He listed a few examples of Liberal spending snafus, including billions spent on eHealth and on gas plant relocations, which he said resulted in no benefit to Ontario taxpayers. “There needs to be a culture change at Queen’s Park, because right now, you’re paying more and getting less in return. People are working harder and they’re not seeing the fruits of that labour,” he said.
Brown argued that proposed changes to Ontario’s labour regulations, including an increase to the province’s minimum wage, would be disastrous for Ontario families and would put Ontario on increasingly uncompetitive footing on the world stage. He cited a recent study commissioned by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce that projected the loss of 185,000 jobs as a result of the legislation.
“I think everyone wants to get to higher wages,” Brown said. “Everyone wants to do their best to make small businesses competitive and take care of employees at the same time, but you have to give notice. You can’t do it overnight.”
In brief media availability following the speech to supporters, Brown was asked about his party’s position on rural school closures. He pointed out that he presented a motion in the legislature calling for a moratorium on all rural school closures before the end of the last legislative session.
“Kathleen Wynne said that she got involved in politics to stop school closures when she first entered politics in 2003,” he continued. “She has now closed more schools, her government has closed more schools, than (former PC premiers) Mike Harris and Ernie Eves combined. We’ve seen a record amount of school closures, and frankly, I believe there should be the same quality of education whether you live in rural Ontario or urban Ontario, and it seems that this has been a government that has abandoned rural Ontario. You take a school out of a small town, you rip the heart out of a small town. I’m going to fight for these schools, because I want children to have great opportunities to have great education, no matter where they live.”
Kramp echoed Brown’s sentiments, adding that he’d participated in rural school closure debate in Hastings County.
Kramp — who served with Brown as a member of caucus on the federal Conservative government under Stephen Harper — said Brown was “probably one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met in my life,” adding that “he’s working his tail off to affect the change we need.”
The admiration clearly went both ways. “I’ve always been impressed with Daryl,” said Brown, who said he first met Kramp when he was a PC volunteer 20 years ago. “It was a real privilege to serve with him for nine years in the House of Commons, and there are some people who just exude public service and love for their community and love for their country, and Daryl’s one of those people. I think you have the gold standard in what you want in a candidate and what you want in an MPP. I’m optimistic and excited to have Daryl on our Ontario PC Party team; I think he’s going to do great things on the provincial level.”