HANSARD

March 22, 2010

ORDERS OF THE DAY
THRONE SPEECH DEBATE

Mr. Ernie Hardeman: This throne speech showed a government that has lost their way because they have spent too long in their ivory towers in Toronto; a government that is disconnected and out of touch with the people of Ontario. As Christina Blizzard said, "It's Dalton in Wonderland." He thinks that people will be satisfied with vague platitudes and reannouncements-and incidentally, we've heard the government mention the fact that this is going to create a million new jobs. Every one of those jobs in the throne speech has been announced prior. They were supposed to be the jobs that were announced in the last throne speech, when they in fact lost over 100,000 jobs. So I guess that goes to the amount of confidence that we can put into this throne speech.

The Premier thinks people will be satisfied with vague platitudes, but the families who have one or even two parents out of work and are struggling to make ends meet need more. The farmers who are losing money every day and expecting the bank to foreclose soon need more. The seniors-and incidentally, it wasn't mentioned in the throne speech-on fixed incomes who are scared that the HST will force them out of their homes need more. The government had an opportunity to create a real plan to get Ontarians back on track and missed the opportunity.

The McGuinty Liberals are faced with a record-breaking $24.7-billion deficit, but if you listened only to the throne speech you'd think everything was ticking along nicely in this province. This government is on a steady course to double the provincial debt by 2013. Since the McGuinty Liberals came to office, Ontario's debt has grown by $65 billion. It took 23 Premiers and 136 years to get us to $148 billion in debt, and Dalton McGuinty would single-handedly double that debt in just eight years. On a per-household basis, this means every single family in Ontario is saddled with more than $13,500 of the McGuinty Liberals' debt, yet the throne speech hardly addresses it. The people of Ontario expect more from a government than to mortgage the future of our children.

However, I will admit the McGuintys have come up with one money-making plan; unfortunately, it may be at the expense of our children. According to a recent Toronto Star article, Ontario now hosts 38,000 foreign students. The throne speech laid out a goal of increasing that by 50% over the next five years. Dalton McGuinty might call it "Open Ontario," but I'd call it "desperate Ontario."

The government of Ontario's proposal is that international students, who pay almost triple, become cash cows of our cash-strapped university system. It runs the risk that Ontario and Canadian students will be pushed out of the post-secondary education system by cash-heavy foreign students, who pay almost triple the tuition fees.

I hope that there are enough student spaces for some of my Liberal colleagues to go back to school, because they need to work on their math skills. They are creating 20,000 new student spaces, but if they are successful in attracting the number of foreign students they want, that will fill 19,000 of those spaces and leave a grand total of 1,000 extra student spaces for our Ontario children-only 1,000 extra spaces to deal with the overcrowding and the people who are currently being turned away from schools in Dalton McGuinty's Ontario.

These student spaces are not a new, forward-looking plan; they are a reaction to the problem that the McGuinty government has already created. People in Ontario are losing their jobs. Under Dalton McGuinty, Ontario has lost 279,000 well-paying manufacturing jobs; 140,000 jobs were lost in 2009 alone. Incidentally, that was the year they were supposed to create a million jobs since that last throne speech.

High taxes and a challenging economy are forcing our businesses to close or move to more competitive locations. As a result, many Ontarians are going back to school to try and train for a new job. College applications are up 14.5% overall since January 2009, 22.8% for non-secondary school applicants. Some colleges, such as Northern College in northwestern Ontario, where mining and forestry sectors have collapsed, are experiencing an increase of 47%.

In the throne speech, the McGuinty government claimed that "every qualified Ontarian who wants to go to college or university will find a place." Well, their math simply doesn't add up. This is already shaping up to be another broken promise to the students, just like the promise in the 2007 throne speech where they said that they would give a $300 grant each year to help with the cost of textbooks. No, they didn't.

In the throne speech, the McGuinty government pointed to the Second Career program and talked about its successes. While he included one positive story, he doesn't mention the many stories that we hear every day, people calling who are frustrated by the red tape-people like the mother of two who was trying to go back to school. It took so long to get the approval from Second Career that all the daytime classes were full, leaving her with evening courses and no daycare options. Or people like hospitality student Derek Baker, who waited from September to December for funding approval. In January, having already paid George Brown College $145 to hold his spot, Baker could wait no longer and started classes, even though he couldn't afford the tuition. Last time he spoke to his career counsellor, she told him that he would have to drop out because Second Career funding isn't available to those already students.

Derek was a bike mechanic who was laid off at Duke's Cycle after the store burned down during the 2008 Queen Street fire. He said, "All I want to do is learn and contribute.... You guys are telling me that in order to go to school I can't go to school-are you crazy?" That was his quote.

People like Derek were looking for real solutions in this speech. People in my riding who are worried about the impact of the HST were hoping that in this speech, the government would explain how we are supposed to afford an extra 8% on everything from gasoline to hydro to home heating fuel. This tax increase will be applied to hundreds of things that Ontarians use every day.

I know that many seniors rely on services like snow removal, lawn care and home repair to allow them to stay in their own homes. Now the cost of all those services will be increased by 8% as well.

Our farmers are worried about the HST too. They're worried about the impact of losing the point-of-sale exemption. They can't afford to pay the sales tax and wait months to get that money back. They need the money to operate. Instead of announcements to help farmers, the government chose to largely ignore them in this throne speech, with just 51 words and no new assistance. In fact, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture's commentary on the throne speech said, "Anyone looking for an at-length mention of agriculture or farming in the recent Ontario throne speech was most likely left disappointed or cold."

I can imagine how delighted Ontario farmers and growers will be to hear that there is still no room for them in the Premier's agenda. The McGuinty government has been ignoring the needs of Ontario farmers for several years, and the longer they ignore them, the more desperate their needs become.

A few weeks ago, I questioned the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on this government's lack of support for our farmers. I started by saying that Premier McGuinty was set to announce a new set of priorities in his next throne speech and that Ontario farmers are still waiting for him to deliver on the promises he made in the last one.

In the 2007 throne speech, the Premier promised to help grain and oilseed farmers. Today, they are no better off. The McGuinty government has ended the grain and oilseeds risk management pilot program even though it was a success.

On the night of the throne speech, I had the privilege of going to the grain farmers' convention in London. The minister spoke, and the farmers were left confused. If the government supports them, as she claims, why would they end a program that works? For the last three years, the province and the farmers have funded the program jointly, and it worked.

Now the Minister of Agriculture claims that it can't continue without the federal government adding to the provincial portion. The farmers can't understand why. Nothing has changed other than that the minister has simply decided not to participate.

The other question they kept asking was why they would cut the grain and oilseeds program when the McGuinty government was the one promoting it. Former Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky directed Ontario commodity groups to come together to create a consensus proposal for a risk management plan, and they did everything they were asked to do. They created a plan modelled on the grain and oilseeds program. They are speaking with one voice. They are telling the Ontario government what they need, and the government is making excuses.

They claim they won't participate without the federal government. They have forgotten that these are Ontario farmers, that Ontario has a responsibility to support them. They're ignoring the fact that our farmers are competing against people of other provinces who do have the support of their provincial governments. If the Minister of Agriculture spent more time talking and, even more importantly, listening to the farmers, she would know that the federal-provincial tug-of-war is of no interest to them. They have no time to decide whose fault it is; they simply want to work hard and make sure their work is rewarded and supported by government.

I'm tired of asking, but I will do it again. When is the McGuinty government going to stop making excuses and take action to help our farmers? We are waiting not just for an answer but for action. It's almost the end of the fiscal year. We know that last year, because of flaws with support programs, Ontario farmers, even those losing money, failed to qualify for all the support they deserved and the money that had been allocated specifically for them.

This government had a choice on what to do with that money. It could design a program that would help farmers, but instead, it chose to quietly reallocate $82 million to other priorities.

The McGuinty government has done nothing to solve the problem with the program this year, so once again they will be faced with a choice. I hope this time they will choose to help the struggling farmers. They have known about the problems with the support programs for a long time.

In the 2005 throne speech, the McGuinty government said that it "continues to act on concerns regarding the Canadian agricultural income stabilization program." That's the program that didn't trigger and the province had $82 million left over. Since that time, the program has been renamed, but the problems haven't been solved.

There are still hog farmers who have been losing money for several years and are unable to qualify for support. The program is still unable to deal with long-term crisis or a long-term drop in prices, and it is still failing Ontario's farmers.

In Dalton McGuinty's throne speech he talks proudly about "good things that grow in Ontario." I would like to remind the honourable members on the other side of the floor that these things don't just grow by themselves. Maybe they do in wonderland, but here in the real world we produce things, and we should reward our producers. "Reward" is too strong a word here; I should say, "help them survive," and in some cases, "help keep their lights on." This is a reality for some like Wayne Bartels, whose hydro was shut off a few months back. This is just the first of many farmers who will face these situations and be forced off their farms if they don't get help.

We respect farmers and treat them as equal partners. Not so in Dalton McGuinty's world, not according to a recently rushed Bill 204, the Animal Health Act, which creates a new system of licences and fees that do nothing to aid animal health and simply cause red tape and added expenses to farmers. Our farmers don't need more expenses and red tape; they need help. They are losing their farms and they are being forced out of business. Hog farmers rallied at the then-Minister of Agriculture's constituency office. They rallied at Queen's Park and they rallied at the federal-provincial-territorial meetings in Niagara-on-the-Lake. How many more times do they need to tell this government that they are in trouble before someone listens and takes action? They were looking for answers in this throne speech. They were looking for a plan that would help them survive the tough times and help Ontario's agriculture industry grow. They were looking for the provincial government to step up with real commitments, not excuses.

Nothing for Ontario's farmers in an hour-long throne speech is not the only bad news I had to deliver to my community. I also had to explain that home safety isn't a priority for the McGuinty government. I had to explain when Dalton McGuinty prorogued the Legislature, killing my private member's bill called the Hawkins Gignac Act simply to have a flowery throne speech with no real plan and no major announcements. This bill would have required functioning carbon monoxide detectors in all Ontario homes, and it would have saved lives. I introduced this bill in the wake of a tragedy in Woodstock in which OPP constable Laurie Hawkins, her husband, Richard, and their two children, Cassandra and Jordan, were killed in their home by carbon monoxide poisoning.

We all know that when the Legislature prorogues, all current business, including bills and resolutions, is lost unless included in a carry-over motion by the government. The McGuinty government chose to move forward government bills but did not include the Hawkins Gignac Act. Isn't it ironic that today nobody would question the necessity of a smoke alarm in our homes, but we tend to overlook how important it is to protect ourselves from deadly gases such as carbon monoxide, an odourless, tasteless and colourless gas that is impossible to detect without this device? I don't know how many people would be excited about opening up Ontario if they were not safe in their own homes. It is unfortunate that because of this government's action we will have to start from scratch. I firmly believe that this bill will save lives, so I commit to reintroducing the Hawkins Gignac Act as soon as is practical.

It is almost three years ago that I brought forward a private member's resolution, one that dealt with the issue of taxation on diamond mines. You may remember that on the day the Victor mine was opened in northern Ontario, Dalton McGuinty's office issued a news release bragging about how low taxes were for the industry. In fact, he said, "Provincial tax rates for mining are among the lowest in Canada." Once the mine was opened, the McGuinty government almost tripled the diamond mine tax to 13%. This is the same government that claimed in the throne speech that they would build on that success and bring jobs to the north with the chromite mine. The McGuinty government has lost their credibility with the mining sector, and this government has lost their credibility with the people of Ontario.

Dalton McGuinty is still trying to mislead people, this time on health care. While I welcome the discussion on how we fund health care, I think that once again our Liberal friends are playing with the numbers-

Mr. Ernie Hardeman: While I welcome the discussion on how we fund health care, I think that once again our Liberal friends are playing with the numbers. Once again, they seem to be relying on Liberal math. The reports are that this new patient-focused funding will direct more money into high-growth areas such as the 905. I know that many of those hospitals are underfunded given the population they serve, and I'm pleased that the McGuinty government is finally addressing the problem.

My concern is that the same report indicated there will be no more money for health care. If that's true, then where is the money coming from? What will be cut? I suspect the answer is: from our smaller hospitals in rural and northern communities. In fact, in the article in the paper shortly after the throne speech, a group representing health professionals and hospital workers were quoted criticizing the proposal. I was particularly concerned about the part that said, "The Liberals are setting the stage for rural and northern hospital closures...." I would have hoped that the Premier could be honest with the people of Ontario, but instead we seem to hope that no one will notice. We believe the people of Ontario are smarter than that and they deserve better than what they are getting from this government.

I also want to point out what isn't in the throne speech. This speech was to have laid out the plan of where Ontario is going and what changes are going to affect Ontarians. It neglected to mention that just nine days later the government would put a new regulation into effect that would cost Ontario taxpayers over $53 million on their hydro bill. This regulation would apply the cost of the McGuinty's government's Green Energy Act on all hydro bills, similar to the way that the debt retirement charges are collected. This new regulation appeared on the government website on March 17, but in the hour-long speech the government gave on March 8, there was no mention of this tax-just like they forgot to mention the HST in previous speeches.

The McGuinty government has demonstrated they don't have a plan. They have shown that they are out of ideas and simply don't know how to get Ontario back on track. They are simply enjoying their entitlements and rewarding their Liberal friends, all at the expense of the Ontario taxpayer.

On this side of the floor, we have a different approach. The PC caucus has been talking to the people of Ontario. Our leader has met with the farmers, with small business people and with middle-class families to listen to them and find out what they need from their government, what we can do to help them succeed and where government needs to go or get out of their way.

I have found one thing from the throne speech: It seems to me this government is unable to multi-task. They can't seem to be looking to the future and look at today. They forgot all about the situation today in Ontario and decided they were going to plan for the future, with no inclination, no watching what they were going to do to the people of the province. That's why I'm totally opposed to this throne speech.