Main photo: (Clockwise from top left) Matt Richter, Green Party; Kelly Haywood, executive director of the Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce; Doug Maynard, New Blue (calling in to the meeting via another computer); moderator Norah Fountain, executive director of the Muskoka Lakes Chamber of Commerce; Brad Waddell, Populist Party; and Erin Horvath, NDP.
Four of the candidates vying for the MPP seat in Parry Sound-Muskoka squared off last night in an online forum hosted by Muskoka’s chambers of commerce.
The forum was moderated by Norah Fountain, executive director of the Muskoka Lakes Chamber of Commerce, who stepped in at the last moment due to a technical difficulty. Following a welcome statement, land acknowledgement, and a thank you to the forum partner, The Lakelands Association of Realtors, candidates were posed a series of questions submitted in advance by members of the public.
After their opening remarks, Erin Horvath (NDP), Doug Maynard (New Blue Party), Matt Richter (Green Party), and Brad Waddell (Populist Party) responded to questions on affordable housing, health care, support for small businesses, and more. Andrew John Cocks (Ontario Party) was unable to connect to the forum due to technical difficulties. Graydon Smith (PC) sent his regrets.
A selection of the questions and the candidates’ responses is included below, in the order in which they responded. Watch video of the entire forum near the end of this post.
Housing affordability
Q: If elected, how would you ensure more homes or housing opportunities are made available for younger generations to live and work in our community?
Doug Maynard (New Blue):
Maynard commented that the cost of housing is “out of control” and most people can’t afford to purchase a home. It was his opinion that the issue isn’t the number of available units, but rather the higher proportion of luxury homes and condos being built. He said that a government is needed. “That tells me that we need a government that is now going to try to push back against that a little bit and try and put incentives in for builders and developers to start looking at actually building houses that the average person can buy.”
Matt Richter (Green Party):
Richter said that the lack of affordable housing isn’t a new issue. He said that businesses across the riding have cited it as their biggest challenge. “They need to have more housing so that people can afford to live here and afford to work here. We need to prioritize the government getting back into the business of building affordable housing units and that means saying no to 10 billion dollar highways south of us and yes to building over a hundred thousand affordable rental units to get the job done.”
Brad Waddell (Populist Party):
Waddell said that rentals need to be considered as well, in particular the number of short-term rentals that remove long-term rental properties from the market. “It’s very profitable and I don’t begrudge somebody making a living, but we may have too many of them.” He agreed that more affordable builds are needed, and suggested the use of empty public buildings is an option. “There’s room for more and we can do that more efficiently in other places around this riding.”
Erin Horvath (NDP):
Horvath highlighted parts of the NDP plan called Homes You Can Afford, including the removal of exclusionary zoning to allow for more multiplexes, lane suites, and basement apartments, below-market rental housing, a 10 per cent down payment for first-time homebuyers, and increasing the non-resident speculation tax to 20 per cent across the province. She also said that the Landlord Tenant Act needs to be addressed. “I am a landlord and I know there is a problem with how we are handling that in rural Ontario.”
Labour shortages
Q1: Over 60 per cent of businesses are experiencing labour shortages… How do you plan to address those long-standing shortages that have been made worse by the pandemic?
Brad Waddell, Populist Party:
Waddell said the issue is not a lack of workers, but government benefits that encourage people not to work. “When [employers]can’t get people because it’s easier for them to stay at home and collect your tax dollars, I don’t think that’s fair… We can get more people working if there’s an incentive to work, and maybe top up if minimum wage isn’t quite enough.”
Matt Richter, Green Party:
Beyond housing, Richter said that there needs to be a fair living wage. He also noted that for the first time, 20 per cent of Ontario’s population is above the age of 65. “There are multiple reasons why there is a shortage of workers here and I know the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka for the majority are not lazy, and they are wanting to get out there and work.” He added that small business owners want to raise wages but can’t afford to due to red-tape policies.
Erin Horvath, NDP:
Horvath noted that small business owners understand that paying employees well leads to loyalty, as well as cost savings because they don’t have to keep recruiting. “We need to raise the minimum wage floor substantially, we need to do it in such a way that it offsets the costs for small businesses…but we also have to deal with, on top of the housing, childcare.” Horvath also mentioned that inadequate public transportation can be a barrier for employees.
Doug Maynard, New Blue:
Maynard agreed that the minimum wage needs to rise and that public transit needs to improve. “Childcare is another huge one. If they can afford childcare, they can’t arrange it for the times that they’re required to work. We need to come up with a more stable childcare system that will accommodate these people…any time of day they need to work.”
Health care
Q: We know that we can’t have a strong business community without a resilient healthcare system. How would you bolster health care in Ontario and Muskoka?
Brad Waddell, Populist Party:
Waddell said nurses and PSWs are frustrated with the overabundance of administrators in hospitals. “The fact that administrators are getting bonuses while nurses are getting burned out and leaving the hospitals…the government could function more the way a business runs. We can’t just print more money when we need it, we’ve got to find ways to work more administrators.” He said the number of hospital administrators could be cut, with the savings used to increase the number of nurses and PSWs.
Doug Maynard, New Blue:
Maynard said that COVID vaccine mandates pushed nurses and PSWs out of jobs, who now need to be rehired. He also said that the wage freeze on nurses needs to be lifted, and more PSWs need to be trained and paid a better wage. “They deserve a lot better than that.”
Erin Horvath, NDP:
Horvath said the Province currently invests 10 per cent less per capita on healthcare than other provinces, adding that the system needs to be brought up to standards. Bill 124, which has frozen wages, needs to be removed. “We need to invest in the people who are doing the work.” She also said that the government needs to invest in early health care interventions, “because it saves the system money, it saves people from going to the emergency room”, including bringing mental health under OHIP, and providing pharmacare and dental care for low-income people. Finally, she said that long-term care needs to be publicly, not privately, funded. “We know that the [COVID] death rates were much much higher in private homes.”
Matt Richter, Green Party:
“We need to honour and respect our nurses and personal support workers and all health care staff with the pay and benefits they so rightly deserve.” He also said that some burden could be removed from the system by building nurse practitioner-led clinics in the northern part of the riding, and added that hospice and palliative care needs to be fully funded.
Small business support
Q: Pandemic shutdowns really hurt small businesses. Does your party have a plan for recovery?
Doug Maynard, New Blue:
Maynard said his party is “100 per cent against any further lockdowns…we would do everything it takes to prevent that from ever happening again.” He said his party is behind making restitution to businesses to help them get back on their feet.
Matt Richter, Green Party:
Richter said the Green Party has a multi-faceted plan. He said unnecessary red tape needs to be removed for small businesses and industries like food production. He also mentioned the recent staycation tax credit, calling it a good start but a half measure. The Greens would extend it to include the hospitality industry and in particular the restaurant industry “that was decimated during this time.”
Erin Horvath, NDP:
Horvath said the NDP is in favour of small businesses, and said her party would implement two more small business recovery grants, one in 2022 and one in 2023 for businesses still struggling to be profitable. She added that both commercial insurance and commercial tenancies need to be better regulated. She also that the staycation tax credit should continue, and that there should be no further shutdowns. “We cannot keep shutting our small businesses down and leaving our large box stores open to make record profits.”
Brad Waddell, Populist Party:
Waddell said his party would “eliminate the overburden and overbearing government and let people run their business…we are totally against lockdowns.” He added that more could be done to encourage people to visit the area for its outdoor attractions, while at the same time eliminating red tape to cut the cost of running a business or trying to get a small business off the ground.
Closing remarks
In their own words, this is how each candidate summed up their party’s plans for the future of Ontario:
Brad Waddell, Populist Party Ontario:
I would like to speak to the people who have not yet made a decision in this election. There are so many this time around that are disillusioned with the heritage parties, [and]don’t feel like there’s a real choice. The reason I’m sitting in this seat is because I was disillusioned with the choices we have. I think the climate is right to let some new blood come into leadership and again the Populist Party is people who have not done this before. We know what it’s like to run a business, we know what it’s like to try and live on a normal income, we know what it’s like to lose your wage through the last two years when nobody in government took a pay cut, nobody missed a day’s work in government while they were locking out your businesses. We can appreciate what you’re going through. We are you, and we’re asking for your support in this provincial election to have people in Queen’s Park who understand what it’s like, who are frustrated again with the government overreach, with the control they’re trying to get over our lives, and to just let us be free, let us go again. A lot of young people are telling me they don’t really understand what’s happening in the government, and they’re happy to understand more because it’s blindsiding. We want to have more transparency in government, we want to let you have more control over your life, over where your tax dollars are going. A great statement I heard the other day, a gentleman said ‘I wouldn’t mind paying taxes if the government would just stop wasting so much of it’. We want to run it responsibly, logically, use some common sense, and that’s what we want to do.
See the PPO platform here.
Matt Richter, Green Party:
I’m very proud of where we’re at right now from a forum like this in terms of the questions and issues we brought up. Naturally, there were some that were missed…and I always use that as an open invite to be very clear and transparent and collaborative. Please do not hesitate to reach out moving forward to hear the solutions that we’re offering if those questions didn’t get answered this evening. We heard everything from broadband tonight to racism and the need to stamp out racism and discrimination and hate, we heard the overwhelming need for action on affordable housing, and then of course the ongoing health care crisis which so desperately needs real action when it comes to our mental health services, and of course climate which unfortunately wasn’t brought up too much… Everyone, I’m seeing this from one election to the next. You’re sick of status quo, we’re ready to move on. You want strong leadership, independent leadership that can be a real reasoned voice for you down in Queen’s Park. You’re looking for action to tackle the affordable housing crisis, to bring fairness for small business, to ensure that our hospitals are functioning properly and meeting the needs, and to ensure that there’s action toward the climate. We’re in a robust campaign right now with the Green Party here in Parry Sound-Muskoka, over a thousand signs on private property, over 350 volunteers, over 30,000 doors have been knocked or phoned to. And we’re hearing you. You’re hearing the inspiration going right now. It’s a two-way race between the Conservative and myself and moving forward the opportunity now is more than ever to change the colour of this riding to a colour that represents working across party lines, working in a wholesome way with honesty and integrity. On June 2, I humbly ask for your support to vote for myself, Matt Richter, and really deliver the strong leadership that would be so desperately required to bring change forward.
See the Green Party platform here.
Doug Maynard, New Blue Party:
I truly believe that this election coming up is so important for all of us. There’s no question that we’ve watched our country and province sink further and further down and the bottom line is it is because of our government. We’ve grown used to the system of government that tells us there’s only a limited number of options: you vote Conservative until you get sick of them, then you vote Liberal until you get sick of them, and then you go back to Conservatives. I’m here to remind everybody that change is possible, change is able to happen now if we have the courage to ask for change and vote for change and start holding government accountable. Part of the reason I decided to join New Blue and run as their candidate was the party’s willingness to acknowledge that an MPP is elected by the people in the riding to represent that riding. They’re not there to represent the party leader’s interest. We’ve seen too often, especially with Doug Ford’s Conservative government lately, if you don’t agree with him, he’ll kick you out of the party. You speak up for your riding over what he wants, he’ll kick you out of the party. New Blue have given their candidates the opportunity to stand and be a voice in Queen’s Park for the riding, not for the party and if you feel the same way I do that MPPs should be there for the people that elected them, I really encourage you and I humbly ask you, vote New Blue on June 2.
See the New Blue platform here.
Erin Horvath, NDP:
I want to just encourage us to look at issues objectively and with an open mind. Personally, I have voted every different way, always looking at the issues. And as a businesswoman when I look at the issues right now in our riding, like I said, we have businesses that cannot grow because we don’t have workers and we have workers that cannot live here because there is a lack of housing, childcare, transportation, and wages that ca pay for life. So the NDP offers us something that I think is worth us looking into. We can begin to deal with that worker shortage, fill our small businesses, and then grow our economy back. And we can do this in a way that addresses our climate justice needs in a way that meets our Paris Accord agreement… As far as environmental… Dr. Gordon Laxer who is one of the nation’s climate leaders has endorsed me as the strongest candidate in this regard, he lives in Gravenhurst, and the reason is two things. One is the skills that I bring…and the other is that the NDP understands the climate issue is not to do with people’s ignorance, it’s to do with power and folks wanting to get rich at the expense of most of us. We have the opportunity to change that around. Please consider voting for me. Complex issues is what I’ve dedicated my life to. I’m not trying to be a lifetime politician. I measure what I do by the grassroots change that I can create. I am prepared to put my twenty-five-year-plus skills in service to our riding. Regardless of what party’s in power I have the skills to build across sectors and to see quality of life change in our riding. So on June 2, please consider voting for me, Erin Horvath of the NDP. It would be my pleasure to serve.
See the NDP platform here.
Candidates who did not attend:
Andrew John Cocks – see the Ontario Party platform here.
Daniel Predie Jr. – Independent
Graydon Smith – see the PC platform here.
The Liberal Party is not fielding a candidate in Parry Sound-Muskoka.
Watch the forum in its entirety below. Scroll down for information on how to cast your ballot.
Election information
Voting day is June 2, 2022.
Advance voting is available across the riding beginning today, May 19. Find advance voting locations here.
You can also vote by mail. The deadline to apply to vote by mail is 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) on May 27. Elections Ontario must receive your completed voting kit by 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) on June 2 (election day) for it to be counted. Apply to vote by mail here.
For more information on voting, visit elections.on.ca.
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These debates are planned out well in advance so why did the PC Candidate not arrange his calendar and make plans to attend?
How can the Muskoka-Parry Sound citizens assess their candidates fully? So sad that PCs can not find the time to engage with the other parties to debate important issues to us living in the near-north.
Just wondering if this is a sign of what we might expect from candidate Smith if he wins — focus will be on Queens Park and Ford’s developer friends vs. on solving and advocating for the unique issues here in Muskoka-Parry Sound!