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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWingham Advance-Times, 1977-05-25, Page 3Election drawing near. • 111 Huron -Bruce candidates speak out on the issues MURRAY GAUNT:Liberai MURRAY GAUNT Liberal "What three issues are most important in this election to the voters of Huron -Bruce?" In terms of the election, I think the issues here are, number one, the need for an election and why it was called at this time. That's an issue with people; people are talking about it. They're saying minority government was work- ing and questioning the need for an expenditure of $20 million, when everything was going along reasonably well. That's an issue. The hospital closings and regional government are still issues here. The matter of property tax reform is an issue among some people, particularly farm people: HOSPITAL CLOSINGS On the hospital closings, the government program is a sense- less one. Of course there's fat in the health budget, but to simply move in and close a hospital in a community which depends on its hospital, around which the com- munity is centred, is just a sense- less program. And we would resist vigorously any attempts by the government to bring in legis- lation to give them the power to do it. That's presuming, of course, that the appeal court up- holds the divisional court decision. In terms of regional govern- ment, our position there has been taken many times. We oppose the present form of regional govern- ment proposed by the Tories. It's costly; it's remote from the peopled they end up paying' a lot more atfd getting a lot less. We don't believe that any type of re- structuring should be done on the same basis that it has been done with the 10 or 11 regional govern- ments which are now in opera- tion. There is an argument for o me expanded vision insofar as 5 lad; ning is concerned. Planni r be done effectively on a re oned or county -wide basic;. We basical- ly support the concept that any restructuring should be done within county boundaries and that some functions can best be handled at county levels, but that the basic form of municipal government should remain as close to the people as possible. In sum, that's about it. PROPERTY TAXES With respect to property tax reform, the government pro- posed that they would pay 100 per cent of the taxes on farm land. The Blair Commission, which was set up to study the proposals, Fame in with an alternate suggestion saying: "We don't think that 100 percent is approp- riate; we think that 90 per cent is," We think that the 90 per cent has some very serious unresolved problems and could present some very real difficulties for farm people. We would prefer that property pay for services to property, and people pay for DAVE ZYLUK: Democratic Party "What .three issues are most important in this election to the voters of Huron -Bruce?" Agriculture, unemployment, medicare, and energy. — These seem to be the issues coming through in talking to people. Dealing first of all with medi- care, I don't think this province has an adequate medicare pro- gram. I think that the people in the small areas are being ignored in preference to large centres. I realize that health care is ex- pensive, and I feel that we should cut back in other areas. However, I don't feel that we should just cut back by closing hospitals as the government has done, and unfor- tunately as the Liberal party of Ontario seems to also advocate by support of the government, in legislature. This riding is directly influenced by the closure of the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital which I protested against, and this riding is affected by the threatened closure of the Dur- ham and Chesley hospitals, be- cause those patients would have to come into our riding to get hos- pital treatment. So first of all we have to make sure there are health facilities for the people in the small areas like this. We can't expect a person to go to London, or to go to a major city for treatment. We should be sure that doctors are encouraged to come to our small centres. Really, from personal ex- perience, there is not the en- couragement for doctors to come. There should be more attention paid to the chronically ill, and the aged. Our hospital beds are being taken up by thechronically ill and the aged; and those beds could be vacated in such a way that the chronic patients and the aged could go to special centres where they spend a little bit more money on the care of those people. My concern is that, having worked in a hospital for termi- nally ill patients and also in Goderich Psychiatric Hospital, there is a lot of emphasis put on getting the job done; very little personal emphasis on the patient. In Goderich there was an attempt made to develop that sort of a personal touch, but there wasn't enough. There's just too much work in a medically oriented hos- pital. What I'm saying is that as well as looking at the medical point of view, we also have to look at the care for the chronically ill. That doesn't mean just dumping them in the bed; they have to have more care than that, and they have to be.encouraged to feel use- ful, and to feel wanted. AGRICULTURE Dealing with' agriculture, I'll start off by giving you an ex- ample. When a workman makes an item, and the material of that SAM MacGREGOR Progressive Conservative item goes up in price, the work- man passes that increase in price on to the public. The farmer isn't in that situation. So, the farmer should be compensated for his capital costs, as any industry would. The farmer should • be com- pensated for the work he does, just as any worker. And just like any other worker, also, there is also a limit at which the farmer should have a liveable income. And in this area, in the Huron - Bruce riding, there are farmers who do not get, sufficient income to support their farms; their families and themselves, from their farms. They have to go out and take a second job. I can think of examples, the salt mines in Goderich, and Douglas Point and other industires. That's one area of concern. This would involve an equalized income plan; this is not a guaranteed income as a lot of people see it. First of all it's a voluntary program; the farmers don't have to participate. The idea is that the farmers would elect their own marketing boards. These marketing boards would get together; they would look at the business .aspect of farming, and they would set realistic prices in order that the farmers could live. There are subsidization payments that go to farmers at the present time. Those subsidization payments would be transferred across to this, program. Now, say a farmer decides that he's going to grow a crop. The income for that crop would be guaranteed so that at the end of the year he would have a mini- mum. Now, of course, he has to go out and work, he has to bring in his crop; he knows that he will get a minimum of so much for what he puts in. Iff he doesn't meet 'that minimum, his income will be equalized to meet that minimum. This will be coming 'from subsidization. However, if he goes over, there will be profit sharing plus also the return to the consumer by cutting down the price of food. ENERGY With energy, one point I want to make strongly. Last election' 'Stephen Lewis was in this riding. He was misinterpreted. The On tario New Democratic Party agrees that we need energy. It accepts the fact that Douglas Point is an area that is a,legiti- mate source off energy. What the NDP wants done is that they want Ontario Hydro to, guarantee that there's monitor- ing done. The reason they want this monitoring done is, number one, for the safety of the men on. the job. Also, they have to be careful of the people who live in the area, especially in the long term. Because we don't know the effects of the long term basis. services to people. That concept we support, but as a bridging pro- posal we suggest that farm taxes be left on the same basis they are now, whereby the provincial government rebates 50 per cent to farmers. They know the system ; they understand it ; they know what they're dealing with, and we suggest that it be left on that basis. "If elected, what would be your first priority in the Ontario legis- lature?" I think that in terms of a prio- rity, we've got to get the over- spending of the provincial government in line. We have a provincial debt in total of $7.2 bil- lion; we're paying this year, for the first time, one bitlion dollars in interest alone, which is two thousand dollars a minute, every minute you and ]: sit here. That's a whale of a lot of money. What it does, it really fuels the inflation thing. It slows business down because, in actual fact, while much of the government's borrowing has been done in- ternally through the Canada Pen- sion Plan fund, through the Teachers Superannuation, etc., , so that they haven't gone out into the open market, it still means that they are competing with business for available capital. It just means that business doesn't have that capital with which to There are some plants where we can do research, but we have to be monitoring, and it has to be guaranteed by Ontario Hydro. There's no such guarantee. In fact, there were some Hydro guys saying that as far as dumping in the lake is concerned, Ontario Hydro is getting slack. And in fact, one of the people I was speaking to was on one of these monitoring crews. What frightens me is if this monitoring isn't kept up it could get slacker and slacker. Because the Hydro isn't forcing it. We have to monitor this plant, to make sure it doesn't harm the environment around ,the farms and so on, and also the lake. We have to monitor the lake, right away. Apparently they're dump- ing II2S into the lake. • Relating to energy, NDP would want nuclear power as one way; they also feel that other ways should be explored, and they should be explored now. They shouldn't wait until the crisis gets so complicated and involved that we're really pushed to the limits. Regarding the power lines coming out of Douglas Point, there should have been more dis- cussion with the farmers and not just with one or two individuals, and small groups. The discussion should have been with all far- mers affected together, so that all the farmers knew what they were getting into. ll�'•• The W.ingham Advance -Times, May 25, 198—Pag e 3 '�'1f�Y,,- r�,.fr%.%', �.0/ fj'4:i1':/ /:�'/, `.::f:;f,.i/:.% i/r�i.%%';j%�ffr/`�f1/f-J�i�%�!f�ru;�f,��,.r��.-�f/.'. 'f11�J.'�rJr�//,�r�.7.�li.*,,..{/,1/•,::.•i4,4 /fn�.:�%,4, ,,f<r� . • ,% f ri Three candidates As the campaign for the, June 9 provin- cial election enters its last two weeks, here is what the three candidates in the Huron -Bruce riding have to say aboutlhe election issues and their positions on them. Contesting this election are (in alpha- betical order by party): Liberal incum- bent Murray Gaunt, New Democratic Dave Zyluk and Progressive Conserva- tive Sam MacGregor. Mr. Gaunt, 42, of Wingham, has rep- resented Huron -Bruce at Queen's Pari for the past 15 years, where he has served as agricultural critic to the Liberal party and as a member of several committees. work ; government has gobbled it up. It ultimately means higher unemployment, higher interest rates, the whole business cycle slowing `down; that's what's been happening. Ontario, the richest province in Canada, now has the highest unemployment in Canada. It surpassed Quebec•last month. Those kind of situations are very, very worrisome be- cause here we are, caught in an energy crisis, a big- manufac- turing province and we're paying more for energy, whether it be electricity, oil, or gas, that is vital to our industry. Bringing our expenditures more in line with our revenues has got to be a top priority, but on the same plateau with it is an urgent need to develop alternate energy policies. There's no reason, in my view, why for instance we in this prov- ince can't develop a technology within the next 20 or 30 years, and I think it's that close,.whereby we can use methanol as a fuel in cars, trucks, tractors. The Ger- mans were using this before the second world war but because oil was cheaper they switched and they've never gone back. The breakeven point is roughly $1.30 a gallon: If gasoline gets to $1.30, then we better get switching into In fact, the NDP wouldn't be in total agreement with the way the power line is set up. They feel there has 'to be a power line coming out of Douglas Point to the rest of the province, because we do need the energy. However, it's felt that there could be utility corridors, in the province: In other words the province could be better planned. Let's talk about Ontario Hydro and Douglas Point. This utility corridor could have a power line going out; it could'have a road; it could have telehommunications; if there was going to be oil having to go out from somewhere, it could be along there. So rather than putting power lines up and roads up in another area, having all these utilities up in different areas and disrupting the agricul- tural land, they could be put in one corridor. That way not so much land would be used. - "If elected, what would be your first priority in the Ontario legis- lature?" I think the thing that concerns me most is that I don't agree with the statement made by Darcy McKeough talk ng about 5.3 per- centage unempi, ment. I don't think Mr. McKe 'gh is being realistic. I believe i,. 'his area the seasonally adjusted unemploy- ment rate is about 11 per cent. Please turn to P•:e 4 He is married, with two children. Mr. Zyluk, 29, of Kincardine, is the principal of a Kingsbridge elementary school. He also serves as vice-chairman of the Kincardine recreation board a Yid is a member of the Ashfield Township recrea- tion board. He previously held a position as lecturer at Fanshawe College, London. He is married, without children. Mr. MacGregor, 43, of RR 1, Kincar- dine, operates a successful housing de- velopment company in Kincardine. He has previously worked for Canadian National and Ontario Hydro. He is mar- ried and has three daughters. something else, because metha- nol can be competitive at that point. AS for industry, there's no reason in the world why much of our industry can't become self- sufficient energy -wise. Much of the industry, for instance, in Ger- many is that way. German in- dustry produces about 40 per cent of its own energy needs; it's a self-sufficient system. They don't hook on to their power grid to get their electrical needs; they don't require outside fuel for their energy needs. It's a self-con- tained operation, electrically,and fuel -wise: There's no reason in the world why we can't be moving toward the same thing. It would make our industries more competitive in the export trade; it would reduce our provincial energy requirements and hence help our balance of payments. Not only in Ontario, but in Canada. I think we've got to do that, or we're in really serious trouble from an unemployment stand- point ; from a standpoint of trade; from a standpoint of our deficits of payments at the federal level( - because Ontario is really a pivotal province when it comes to trading and manufacturing. I see those two things as being very vital and unless we do it ................. we're just going to lose our posi- tion as an industrial province; we're going to become an in- dustrial wasteland inwhich we have double-digit unemployment unless we are able to cope with those two problems inlmediately. "What do you feel you have to offer the voters of Huron-B�r�ce that neither of the other candi- dates do?" I've got the experience ob- viously. My 15 years is•something to trade on. I've got the ex- perience in dealing with govern- ment departments and govern- ment in general; in dealing with people in my riding and trans- lating their needs to government and helping them cope. So, ob- viously, you deal from your strong hand, and that has to be one of my promotions. I'm in a position where I can do that because I have been here for 15 years as the member. What else can I offer? Hard work, dedication, those are proven qualities; I just have to run on my track record I guess. That's What I'll have to do in terms of what the people want; they've placed their confidence in me five times, and I hope that they'll do it again. . SAM MacGREGOR:Progressive Conservative "What three issues are most important in this election to the voters of Huron -Bruce?" The issues, as I see them, are firstly, to have the significance of the riding of Huron -Bruce rep- resented on the government side of the House. And in my opinion, the government will be formed in a majority position by the Pro- gressive Conservatives. That's the first priority, to get it into position to have the concerns of the riding registered directly. The two issues I'm concerned about are, firstly, the need to havethe agricultural voice in the food production of the general area of western Ontario. Their concerns have to go directly to government because the food, being one of the basic essentials for life, is produced in a major quantity in the riding ;of Huron - Bruce. And because of the effect that the ratios of the province and representation by population seems to be having the parties forming the government are rep- resented with an urban voice. And they being the consumers, the problems of the agricultural community aren't being heard as they always seem to be rep- resented by members of the opposition both in the provincial and in the federal governments. The agricultural voice seems always to end up having its concerns trying to be resolved by Opposition members. In the reality of it all, they fall on deaf ears. And the consumers having the majorty of the residents in the province, and in fact in the nation, the price of food, when it's on the supermarket shelf, allows for a profit for the processor, for the merchandiser, for the trans- porter, but there's nothing there that really allows for a profit for the producer. ENERGY Energy, in the riding of Huron - Bruce, is extremely important. It provides, it will eventually pro- vide, 6,000 megawatts into the Ontario Hydro. And that's a lot of energy when you understand that of all kinds of energy supplied to the province of Ontario today ,coming from coal, oil, gas, hy- draulics and uranium, there is only 18 thousand megawatts. That's a pretty significant part of the energy. At least electrical energy. When you look at capital and when you look at energy avail- ability, I don't think that energy loss over transmission lines is necessary and I don't think that it's affordable. I think that in- dustry can be properly intro- duced to the general area, around an energy project, to consume some of that energy on site. INDUSTRY I don't think that you can divorce energy from industry and agriculture. Secondary industrial development can be designed to locate near the resource rather than near the market. And in the riding of Huron -Bruce there are two resources, they being agri- culture, and industrial develop- ment that relates to that re- source. There are the two areas, and in my opinion they integrate. Agriculture, for instance, al- though it's only something like five per cent of the population, spends about 43 per cent of the provincial economy. That's pretty significant, in the tractors that are manufactured for them, in the roads built for the trans- portation of their goods, and in the energy they consume and the energy that goes into making the fertilizers, etc. for that industry. They spend a lot of the economy, and if they're in trouble, as they are, and if their voice isn't directly heard and their needs acted on, our - economy's in trouble. Because they are the catalysts to spend the economy, 43 per cent of it; pretty significant. "If elected, what would be your first priority in the Ontario legislature?" To sound out a rational path to have the agricultural concerns registered. Firstly, I think insteadf so much intervention into agricul- ture and complex legislation that gives them artificial subsidies, I think really government should be funding reasearch that in fact can bring about the fixation of nitrogens in soils and things like that. And having consumers in the province that understand that if the farmers' liquidity is not a fact, then eventually the cheap price of food, and that is cheap today in comparison with any other commodity, if they don't understand that they're going to have to allow for a fair return to the farm r, the consumer in the end is Ging to be the biggest DAVE ZYLIJK New De erotic Party __ter loser of all, because he's in the majority. Arid if the individual farmer, running 200 to 400 acres of land has to get out of business, then the only replacement for this is the large corporate farm that will tie together food processing, meat processing, and everything else; then they monopolize and •control price to whatever they want it to be. The consumer has to understand that if the farmer loses, he may be the first loss, but ultimately the consumer will pay right through the nose. Second point is to understand how the interface of energy and agriculture do relate, and that the energy project at the Bruce can be best utilized to effectively conserve energy, firstly, and then attract energy that relates to that resource on site. A comparison for that is if you take a look at 6,000 megawatts being provided a distance from the market, from the consumers of the energy. The capital cost for that 6,000 mega- watts is five billion dollars. The dine -- loss in transporting that energy to the market is 25 per cent and you can take that when you look at energy availability and capital cost. We're not only losing 25 per cent of a vital re- source, of an economic stimulant, we're also losing $1.25 billion. That, I think, is the way we have to assess the interface of energy, agriculture and economy. "What do you feel you have to offer the voters of Huron -Bruce that neither of the other candi- dates do?" Well, I'm not a politician; I have no political experience, and I think that's refreshing. I know a lot about business, and I know a lot about business problems. And I know that in order to be effec- tive, and to continue to operate a business, you have to understand that there's a bottom line that shows profit. I'm a bit of a redneck and I'm not politically oriented, but I think we've got a sufficient num- ber of professional politicians in our system today. I think that from a business point of view, that can be refreshing : sitting in the House that in fact is respon- sible for the biggest business in the nation, the industrialized economy of the province of On- tario. -'