Keeping it Frank

By: Sam Franks 

WELLINGTON – The four legislative candidates for the Bay of Quinte riding gathered to voice their platforms to members of the community at the Lehigh Arena on Monday Feb. 10.  

Around 200 people were in attendance, with over 60 people online.  

The night was moderated by Jennifer Armstrong of the Wellington Community Association.  

Plans for education and dealing with tariffs were discussed but healthcare and housing concerns took the lead.  

Liberal candidate, David O’Neil, started the discussion by saying that 2.5 million Ontarians don’t have access to primary care.  

“Belleville General Hospital has one of the longest wait times in the province. Trenton Memorial Hospital needs a dialysis unit. Thousands have been on the waiting list for years. 11,000 people died while waiting for health care last year,” O’Neil said.  

O’Neil said that Ford’s government failed to end hallway healthcare.  

“I think we need to get every person a family doctor in four years, which is part of the liberal plan; shorten emergency wait times, preserve and expand services in our regions hospitals, reduce surgery wait times,” said O’Neil.  

O’Neil said the liberal plan also includes building two new medical schools and expanding current schools by doubling the number of accepted students.  

NPD candidate, Amanda Robertson, says her husband is a family doctor and the responsibilities are growing with more complex patients.  

“A big piece of solving some of the crisis is making sure that we’re improving the environments that our physicians and our health care workers are practicing in, because until we start to improve things for our doctors, our nurses, our PSW’s, they’re going to continue to bleed out of our system,” Robertson said.  

Robertson said that the biggest way to fix the healthcare issue is to invest in the workforce.  

“We can create new family health teams and we can create new community health centres, it is not a desirable model for these health care workers to work in,” Robertson said.  

NDP’s plan includes increasing recruiting 3,500 doctors over four years. The NDP also plans on increasing the healthcare budget and add 380 more primary care teams across the province.  

Green Party, Lori Borthwick has first-hand experience as a healthcare worker for over 30-years.  

“When I started working at Belleville General Hospital, we had just under 500 hospital beds. There were no people in the hallways of our emergency departments because we had beds to move the patients that came into emerge, into a bed. Over the years of Liberal and Conservative and NDP one time, we are down to 192 beds,” Borthwick said. 

Borthwick said that more people are crowding hospitals due to not having access to a doctor.  

She said she is offended by the current state of healthcare.  

The Green plan included investing more money and a petition for the legislature of Ontario to prioritize the Bay of Quinte riding.  

“I’m sure whoever is your MPP will be happy to present that petition on Queen’s Park,” Borthwick said.  

PC Candidate, Tyler Allsopp, says that facts need to be agreed upon before solutions can be agreed.  

“Ontario has the shortest wait times to access healthcare. We also have the highest patient attachment rate of any province in Canada,” Allsopp said.  

Allsopp said that those numbers might not be accurately represented because of northern and rural communities, like the Bay of Quinte.  

“We’re investing heavily in attracting those doctors. We introduced the learn-to-state program which helps fund doctors who are willing to practice in under-served areas by giving them their tuition, about $25,000 a year, over a six-year period,” Allsopp said.  

Allsopp said one of the biggest challenges is that doctors aren’t created overnight and things take time to improve.  

“We’ve also put forward $50-billion to build new hospitals all across Ontario. Including $200-million for the Picton Memorial Hospital,” Allsopp said.  

Another issue that got a reaction from the audience was on housing.  

O’Neil said that housing for seniors needs to be improved which will simultaneously help with some stresses in healthcare.  

O’Neil recalls his time as a Quinte West councillor and applying for senior-living programs, but not receiving approval.  

“I also believe there should be increased funding and supports for senior services such as, in-home care services, personal support worker visits,” O’Neil said.  

The Liberal plan includes to double ODSP payments and re-evaluate with inflation. Liberals also plan to lower the personal income tax rate.  

“Our Liberal plan will slash taxes on new homes, improve renter rights and save you move,” O’Neil said.  

Borthwick said that the Greens housing plan starts with those who need it the most.  

“We need to plan to cut taxes on people that earn less than $65,000 a year, or households that earn less than $100,000 a year,” Borthwick said.  

The plan includes increasing rent control for older buildings and vacant buildings, meaning a landlord cannot increase rent upon an eviction for a rental unit. 

Borthwick said that houses are not being designed for the communities needs but for profits.  

“We need smaller houses that are affordable,” Borthwick said.  

She said that the Greens have a plan to build over 3,000 affordable homes with non-profit partners.   

Robertson said that cost-of-living was one of the biggest concerns she’s heard while knocking on doors.  

She said that more private equity firms are buying buildings and raising rent. She plans on limiting Air B&B’s so buildings aren’t sitting vacant.  

“As part of our Homes Ontario plan, we’ll be looking to build 1.5 million new homes by the year 2034 and we’d be building or acquiring 300,000 permanently affordable homes, as part of that 1.5 million,” Robertson said.  

Allsopp responded playfully saying that the PC government introduced similar plans with building 1.5 million homes but three years before the NDP deadline.  

“This is a significant problem across Ontario and there’s a couple of different things that we’ve done. We’ve changed the provincial policy statement in the building code to allow for initiatives like modular homes as well as tiny homes to be built. We’ve also increased density around transit stops, so the places where people live and work are able to get housing that’s affordable,” Allsopp said.   

Green Party candidate Lori Borthwick, Liberal candidate David O’Neil, NDP candidate Amanda Robertson, and Progressive Conservative candidate Tyler Allsopp sit at a table, with their respective political signs in front, waiting for the meeting to start.