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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-09-09, Page 14PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1987. Candidates Forum The candidates in Thursday's provincial election answer questions about policies to help Huron NICOPETERS Progressive Conservative Candidate What is your party’s policy on education funding? Paul Klopp said the New Demo­ crats feel education funding should be increased to the 60 per cent level of support from the provincial government. The cost of education should also be taken off the property tax base, he said. With farm tax rebates this has already taken place in farmland, he said, but everyone should have the same situation as farmers. Revamping the tax structure, getting rid of the $1 billion in tax holidays, would make it possible to get back to the 60 per cent level. He said he is not worried that increased school funding might be swallowed up in increased salary demands from school board em­ ployees. He said he has confidence thatschool boards have enough good people to make sure increas­ ed funding is properly allocated. “I guess because I know a number of people on our county school board, I have great faith in them and I think there are a lot of school boards that have the same mix of people.” Nico Peters supports his Conserva- tive Party’s stand on increasing provincial funding of local school costs to 60 per cent over the next five years. He’s also promoting mandatory teacher training that would see each teacher take four months of updating courses every five years. Professional develop­ ment days should be student- focused not just a day when the kids are sent home. There should be programs for students at the schools on PD days for teachers. He feels there shouldn’t be any more worry about extra funding being eaten up in salary increases under 60 per cent provincial funding of schools than there is today whenlocal municipalities have to pick up 55 per cent of education costs. Jack Riddell says the time to help young people shape their destiny is when they are in their early ages which is why his government proposes a $300 million program to reduce class sizes in primary grades and give the teachers an opportunity togive more indivi­ dual attention to each student. Whether we like it or not, he says, we are in a technological age and children must have a familiari­ ty w ith computers so more compu­ ters have been promised for the schools. Despite talk of provincial fund­ ing being only 45 per cent, he says the facts are that the province funded 55 per cent of all approved budgets last year but many of the boards overspent their budgets, which is where the figure 48 per cent of actual expenditures creeps in. Still, he says, it’s his govern­ ment’s aim to get funding back up to the 60 per cent level it once was at. How the extra money is spent will be left to the local boards he said, unless the spending of boards was getting out of whack in one area or another. Since Huron County has a large senior citizen’s population that’s growing, what do you feel the provincial government should be doing for seniors? Paul Klopp feels that making it easier for people to take early retirement will aid many older people, allowing people to enjoy their retirement at an earlier time and opening jobs for young people. He feels that pensions should be indexed. He argues that nursing homes should not be in the hands of private owners, that they should be co-operatively run or government owned to keep profit out of taking care of our elderly. He says in some cases greed has hurt the residents of these homes. He supports home care for seniors, keeping them in their own homes longer which makes them happier and saves money over institutional care. He feels more money must be provided to pay better wages for homecare workers to attract more good people into the area. Nico Peters says he hasn’t heard many complaints from senior citizens about current programs but feels the biggest challenge ahead will be providing good service as the population ages. Just to continue the current level of service might be prohibitively expensive, he said. Less institutionalization and more services such as home care must be provided to keep costs from getting out of hand, he says. Currently it is often a problem attracting home care workers, so more money must be found to improve salaries so more people will be attracted into home care work. Programs such as attendant care and meals on wheels can’t be undervalued, he said. Jack Riddell feels recreation will be a major issue in the future as people retire at an earlier age and need programs to help them cope with the leisure time they have. More funding will have to be provided for these programs and he wonders if a separate minister of recreation will have to be set up to deal with the growing area. Hepointsout Huron has been chosen as a centre for pilot project for one-stop provision of services to seniors. Seniors should be staying in their homes longer which is cheaper in the long run even with homecare and other facilities than institutionalization. What do you think the role of the provincial government should be in diversifying the economy of Huron County? Paul Klopp said he feels Huron county already has a lot of diversification with foundaries, Champion Road Machinery, lum­ ber companies and many other industries. There’s diversification in the farm sector with so many different crops grown. He calls diversification a ‘‘red herring” in the election. Pointing to the financing diffi­ culties of one of the industries in the county, Sherlock-Manning Pianos in Clinton, he said the Ontario Development Corporation should have its mandate expanded to help such companies. He points to the 100 jobs lost with the closure of the shoe factory in Seaforth because the federal government dropped import controls and says the provincial government should have raised a ruckus over that loss of protection that meant a terrible blow to communities like Seaforth. He feels the government should have a procurement policy to buy Canadian for the billions of dollars of government-financed buying a year. He thinks the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food should be active in producing computer models that could show farmers JACK RIDDELL Liberal Candidate what effect having a marketing board would have on production on their commodity. Farmers are afraid to buy something they don’t know but OMAF could show them what a marketing board would do, he says. He stresses the importance of a healthy farm sector on the rest of the community, citing studies that show for every six farmers that go out of business one small business goes down the drain. Nico Peters feels it is naive to think that the provincial government is not involved in directing industry to one area or other of the province. The procedure is there and taxes are still the best incentive to move industry to areas of the province. This is not being done in Huron because Huron probably paints itself statistically in a better light thanitreallyis. Unemployment figures for Huron are often unreal­ istically low becauseit is a farming area and we export our unemploy­ ed, he said, compared to an industrial centre where people stay on unemployment insurance. Thus when civil servants hand out incentives to plants to locate in high unemployment areas, Huron always misses out. This move can be nipped in the bud by a representative who says that ‘ ‘ we’ re going to look at Huron county as Huron is,” he said. Jack Riddell says the province should work closely with municipal officials, learning what services ar*=* available to industry. The province should help provide the structure needed to help attract industry such as put passing lanes on Highway 8 to make it more attractive to companies needing to transport their goods. He says he has had a number of municipal officials in to meet the Minister of Industry, Trade and Technology and he has asked them to provide information for his ministry’s files so if industry is interested in coming to the pro­ vince, the information will be needed. Getting a water pipeline into Hay township and getting the money approved to the exten­ sion into Stanley was also one of the things he has done to help promote industry, he said, since more industry requires water. ‘‘We’ve got to provide the services before we can ever hope to attract industry.” Industry must however be com­ patible with agriculture, he said. Pollution drove white beans north into Middlesex, Huron and Perth but pollution could also drive white bean production out of the county, he said. What is the area of most concern In farm policy In the next four years? Paul Klopp says ‘‘We’ve got to start getting a decent price for the product to reflect the costs of the 1980’s.” With the high interest rates of the early ‘80’s and the subsequent government loans pro­ grams (many of which he says came too late) farmers now need decent prices to be able to pay back the loans. Even if a farmer was given a farm today he’d have a hard time making it at current commodity prices, he says. Often, he says, it’s better now for a farmer to be so far in debt that a bank doesn’t dare foreclose than it is for the farmer to be on the verge of being able to pay back a debt because once his equity is equal to the bank loan the bank may foreclose. Nico Peters feels the biggest concern with farm policy in the next four years is the fact that most policies will be designed only for the next four years. Farm pro­ grams have traditionally been designed for three or four years, he said, a length of time chosen more for political gain than gain for the farmers. In order to do long-term planning, he said, farmers must have longer term policies. His party is targeting the needs of the farming community and speaking to those needs, he said. Programs should continue until the need for the program is over, not just the term of the government. Grain stabilization, for instance, he said, should continue, with perhaps alterations along the way, until the problem has alleviated itself. Jack Riddell says the government is going to have to continue to providefinancialstability. Pro­ grams to help farmers become more efficient such as the Pork Industry Improvement Program and the Red Meat Program must continue. PAULKLOPP NDP Candidate He is hoping that at some time in the next few years farmers are going to be able to get back to getting their return from the market place instead of subsidies butthat will depend on interna­ tional markets improving after a subsidy war between the U.S. and Common Market. More research and education must be undertaken. He pointed to a new $10 million program to find biological ways of controlling pests to help farmers more selectively use chemicals. The food consumer of the future will become more and more concerned about what is in his food, he said. Education of new farmers is important to help them be as efficientasthey canbe, he said.- New farmers, because of the high finances involved today, need to be well educated in the financial aspect of farming. “There’s no question we’ve got a lot of work to do preserving our soil which is fast getting away from us,” he says. From wind and water erosion to urban encroachment farmland is endangered. The Soil Stewardship Program will help farmers take some fragile land out of production and put it in soil-building crops and help them modify equipment to help prevent erosion and to plant trees on some endangered land. “If we don’t do it now, it will be too late.” What do you see as the effect of comprehensive free trade on Huron county? Paul Klopp feels that farmers who have marketing boards such as the dairy industry don’t need free trade. They’re doing well and pumping money into the communi­ ty. As much as people claim marketing boards won’t be negoti­ ated away he feels farmers will supply managed commodities will be effected, draining money out of the community. As for small businesses in the towns, he says, the multinationals are the people pushing hardest for free trade so they can shop around for the best deal for the cheapest labour and the biggest government grants. He says for most of the plants in Huron county there is a larger competitor on the U.S. side of the border against they would have to try to stanu up without aid Continued on page 15