PUSLINCH – The Wellington-Halton Hills provincial debate remained civil, but some candidates put the Progressive-Conservative (PC) government’s track record and future plans in their crosshairs.
Monday evening marked the second debate for Wellington-Halton Hills residents, this time hosted virtually by the Puslinch Optimist Club and South Wellington Lion’s Club.
Unlike the previous debate focused on housing, all major candidates were represented at this debate.
Aside from opening and closing statements, candidates answered questions from attendees for the majority of the debate.
Attendee Philip Lewin brought up the proposed Highway 413, directly asking PC Ted Arnott if he was prepared to fight his own party on what he said is a highway unwanted by constituents in the riding.
Arnott said he’s brought up concerns to the government and Ministry of Transportation and pointed out Halton Hills council has passed a resolution opposing the construction.
“I think it’s also important to point out that the Halton Hills chamber of commerce has passed a resolution and written a letter in favour of 413, so there are differing views in our constituency about this,” Arnott said, adding GTA residents are concerned about their ongoing problem with long commutes.
NDP’s Diane Ballantyne said Halton Hills council has been fighting it since it was first introduced in 2005 and then the Ford government revived it in 2018 without municipal consultation.
“They’re rolling over the right of democratically elected councils,” Ballantyne said. “There are so many better ways to address people’s commutes like all-day or two-way GO service along the Kitchener, Guelph, Georgetown, Acton lines.”
Ryan Kahro, Green Party candidate, said her party is looking to amend the Greenbelt Act to make building any highway through it illegal.
“Ontario Greens will protect the Greenbelt by cancelling the Highway 413 and create a dedicated truck lane on the 407 which will save money and keep the flow of goods moving,” Kahro said, adding the party is looking to double the size of the Greenbelt.
New Blue Stephen Kitras called the highway a cash cow Ontarians can’t trust the PC government with, using the 407 as an example.
“I’m sorry but Ted you need to be more strong in advocating when democratic local government says something, you need to listen to them and you need to fight for them tooth and nail,” Kitras said, adding he believed funding is better directed towards rural infrastructure.
The highway came up again during a question on reducing wait times for mental health services in rural areas.
“The mental health issue is something the Ontario Liberal Party is serious about and we’re not going to spend $10 billion on a concrete highway when we need to look at our healthcare system, our mental health situation or on education,” Takacs said, after telling of the Liberal plan to hire 1,000 mental health workers in schools.
The intertwining of mental health and education became a common theme throughout multiple questions of the debate.
Arnott noted this issue predated the pandemic but the PC government has committed to improving mental health services.
“I would want to continue to support better mental health services for all of our citizens and also in particular for young people and to improve them so the waiting lists are eliminated and we get good mental health services for everybody who needs them,” Arnott said.
In education, Arnott noted another problem growing in young people is those who have fallen behind in education due to challenges of schooling through COVID.
“One of the most important priorities coming out of the pandemic is to have a comprehensive plan to help students who have fallen behind to catch up and reach their full potential,” Arnott said.
Ballantyne said she sees young people in Wellington County in a crisis sitting on waiting lists for help that is short lived.
Ballantyne, a high school teacher, didn’t downplay the learning loss but said the mental health crisis is hitting students and staff worse at schools.
“Ford cut funding by $330 million specifically for mental health, cut supports to overdose prevention even though it’s a crisis and he cut $800 million to education during the pandemic even though we knew that our young people were suffering,” Ballantyne said, highlighting the NDP plan to fund mental health which would be covered under OHIP and committing to a maximum 30 day waiting period for youth mental health.
Kahro also said the Green Party plans to increase funding to create a better mental health care system and called online learning a “massive fail” and told of how angry she was when she saw a teacher crying in a parking lot in recent years.
“This came down on the teachers and the kids were forgotten and the parents worked double, triple time to make it work,” Kahro said. “It was so hard on everyone and we can’t let it go there again.”
She noted the Greens are looking to strengthen in school learning and make equity a pillar of public education.
Takacs said the Liberals are going to scrap online educational program, cut classroom sizes and reinstate an optional Grade 13.
Kitras said he supported advocating for stronger mental health support but believed throwing money at the problem might not fix what he called a broken healthcare system. He also noted the difficulty parents have had through the pandemic and overall how little say they have in the education system.
“There’s a lot of talk about empowerment but parents that are the first educators of children are the ones that are feeling not empowered by the system that is right now,” Kitras said. He said New Blue wants to bring education back to basics and renew the trust of parents.
The candidates are set to debate Tuesday evening in a virtual debate hosted by the Wellington Federation of Agriculture.
The provincial election is on June 2.
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