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Times Advocate, 1997-08-06, Page 11Times -Advocate, August 6, 1997 Page 11 Johns satisfied with first two years of office as Huron MPP The following is an interview of Huron Member of Provincial Parliament conducted recently by Exeter Times -Advocate reporter Kate Monk. Huron MPP Helen Johns EXETER - T -A: You're two rears into your terns. This government will never be accused of not doing anything. The actions have effected everyone front children to senior citizens. What was the overall goal of your government when it ►►ws elected? Johns: 1 think the government and especially myself and the people who voted for me believed - government spending was out of control, that we were spending more every hour than we were earning -as a government. And when I was so lucky as to be elected, it:was a million • dollars an hour more than. we were collecting. The situation had become such that we were mortgaging the- next generation. We were not ensuring the same lifestyle for them and in effect -we were spending more every hour than we had. From my personal•standpoint; that was - something I really reacted to since I have young children. Pm prepared to spend what we earn today to live today but I'm net prepared to spend what thcy're going to have to pay tomorrow for today. ' My husband and I came strongly in favor of not having a mortgage system that we should live within our own means like we do within our own household. • The deficit at the time that the party was elected, after everyone does. their accounting, i want to be fair about that, was $11.2 billion a year so they were spending more a year by $11.2 billion a year: We're down to about $7 (billion) with a $6.6 (billion) projected next year which is on track for what we -wanted to have so that it would be balanced by the time this term was out:. -_- We've'made-some_substantia) changes to the way government works and some cuts. People seem to only talk about the cuts♦ but there are some substantial changes to the way government works too that I think are important to recognize. We have less bureaucracy. The MPPs' (Member. of Provincial Parliament) -offices are doing things differently. We don't have the pensions anymore for provincial MPPs that used to be in • longevity. We have less of a budget than we ever had so we have less ' staff. We've tried very hard to work with ourselves to move out and see how government can do things better. And then we've had to go to our transfer'payments and that's where_ the cuts come and where you've heard a• lot about how wc're touching everybody. It was always my belief that everybody was part of the problem --r the building up,of the debt— and everybody had to be part of the solution. If I go back to the polis in another two and a half years and.I say "1 touched everybody;" i think that's fair, that equitable. If I -say "I only picked the • welfare people or I only did this and that got the deficit down," i don't think that's the right approach: We have to take it across the board and have everyone be part of the solution. And that's why you hear so many ' • people talking about this government. If I'm doing my job properly, everyone will be effected as opposed to one specific group taking the heat. for it. T -A: What world you say to a municipal councillor who is facing downloading of services and fewer transfer payments and yet has to balance lois own municipal budget? Johns: 1 think that's the same with all of our partners: municipal, - school boards, hospitals. We've asked everyone to look for efficiencies in the system. We don't necessarily believe in any case that a reduction of dollars necessarily means a reduction in services. It means looking at the services and this government has been very open to saying "Maybe we shouldn't be in that business anymore." • . You can't be all things to alt people. What businesses should be doing and what a municipality should do, -what a hospital should do ora provincial government. And you should say "These are the services we should be in. How can we provide them and what money do we need to do them?" We're asking municipalities not;to look at how they can provide the same services but to look and see what the community -wants for services ..and how they can provide those to meet the community needs. I find with provincial politics people say "We can't do it differently , —because we've always done it like that for 20 ears." ' • This is the time for people to use that creative t oughtaItid'say-"How----t can we do this differently? Is this a service that people still want? And if this is a service that people want, how can we do it better and more cost effective?" • So, we are asking all our partners to look at things and be very creative and that's difficult. It's difficult for all of us. it's hard for all of our municipal partners to look at it and say "We're going to look at this at this in a different .way. We need to say "Do we need a million dollars spent in salaries for councillors in Huron County? Can we do it better "with less councillors?" The key question is "What do the people want?" I want it to be the broad range of voices. 1 don't want it to be the 80/20 rule where 80 per cent of the people don't use the services. I want the people to say "This is the service that's important to me."* We need to hear from not just the people who usually would call the - municipal politician, we want everybody to say "You've done this in the past and 1 would prefer to not see this done in the future because I don't think we need to be providing that." • We need to have everybody looking at it and saying "This is my tax dollar too." Because this is the only way this government can pay this deficit down. it's to either reduce the cost or increase the tax. I'm committed to not increasing the tax. Maybe people will decide that this isn't the right route along the line that they want to pay more tax. But I'm committed to the fact that we have enough money in the system, we just don't put it into the areas we need to put it into. Some say "We've been putting money into these areas for 20 years so wire going . to continue putting it in for another 20 years." I disagree with that. We have to look at it every year and say' `Is this a service we want in Huron County? Is this a service we want in Ontario? How much are we prepared to pay for it? And what are we going to do to meet the excess? How are we going to deal with if?" - 15 or 20 per cern of the time.We have five administrators making on average $100.100. We have a lot of dollars that aren't being focused on the patient and on . optimal care. We need to get those dollars down there. The people of Huron County believe (fromall the meetings I was to on hospital restructuring) that $500.000 to run.five hospitals with 250 beds is a very large number and money should come down to being with the patients. We need one administrator to run these. When we get one administrator what we'll get too is what's best to happen in Exeter hospital, what's the best to happen in Clinton, as opposed to Clinton saying "Exeter bought a machine last week so I have to buy that machine." That was the old school that we're going to keep up with the next hospital. I don't want hospitals to keep up with the next hospital. 1 want hospitals to keep up with what the community needs to have in that area. So we (Exeter)•focus more on emergency just because of our Grand Bend connection and the influx of people we have in the summertime. We have chosen over the years not to have other services in that hospital. I think - hospitals have to look and say "What is my role here?" On top of that, we have to get better linkages with the tertiary hospitals. . It's been my experience with the Ministry of Health that those linkages. havechanged over the years, have got weaker. It would be very damaging for us if it got weaker, if we couldn't send most of our people down to ' tertiary hospitals when they needed substantial care. I want to strengthen those linkages and 1 think that's a very important thing.for us to work on. We have to do that as a consolidated group and an integrated package that. gives people better he8ltti-care. There are lots of changes that would be better for our health care in the county. 1 also think we have to stop the plight that every time there's a . budget cut, it's -the nurses. I want those cuts to be administrative cuts. I don't want people to be catling me and saying that when they go into the hospital there aren't enough nurses to do the services. I want -the dollars to stay in patient care not in "We all have a bookkeeper, we all have a purchaser, we all have a CEO,"because one administrator could handle 250 beds. One purchasing agent could purchase for five small hospitals. Those are the things -we need to get going. I think a we need a more patient -focussed system, to lose some of the administration and get some very strong linkages with the tertiary . hospitals. This will be the right approach so that we'll be happy with the health care in the county. - T -A: Environmental regulations and funding for conservation programs have also been casualties of this government. What's your government doing.to ensure the environment is going to be protected for our children? Johns: It's a pretty imporfani issue to me because of my kids and_my,: kids like to play lots of sports, to be outside and do a lot of walking and • hiking. Afterthe election, we started to look at where we were getting some duplication in services. We found linkages between the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Conservation Authorities. There was a lot of duplication between.them. There were a lot of thjngs both of them were doing and in some areas it even stretched out to d�►jjplication in the Ministry of Agriculture'(Food and Rural Affairs): For example, in Huron County we had the planting of trees, which is a really necessary item, being done by the conservation authority, the Ministry of Natural Resources and a number of private sector organizations, so we had duplication. We tried very hard to say we would move thingsto one area and if the government didn't have to be involved -in it and the service was being provided, we had to look at that also. There was always a lot of strife because conservation authorities didn't' meet with the normal county boundaries•as you would expect. In Huron County we had two and in other areas you had four or five. It was a - difficult issue and especially for us in southern Huron County because our • conservation authority was such a leading-edge authority. They're still doing leading-edge work although they have to took at how they're going • to do it differently and I think they're doing some of that: ' We were really looking at duplication so we limited their mandate so they were doing things that hopefully no one else was doing. Watershed issues was basically how they came into being and then their roles expanded and we have brought them back to the watershed issue. I believe we've reduced some of that duplication that is happening throughout the government agencies. • But we still have to look at how we can strengthen the Conservation's role. I think that people, particularly farmers, are stewards of their land so we don't get pollution but we still have to monitor that. I not so naive to believe that no agricultural person is in any way abusing their land or the runoff that would affect our lakes for example. • We're looking to strengthen environmental regulations because we think they need to be but we're trying to find a balance that would -allow farmers to farm and business people to do business and at thc same timc -everybody to be a steward of the provincebecause we can't be trying to save the province financially and let (tic province environmentally collapse. • We're looking to do automobile pollution emissions testing because of he -smog ' oin to do emissions testing south of here to take in the . largest area and largest offen ers. e re g trtry-to take some-ve tough stands on our environmental issues because it's very important to•us. We also have to look at some fair and equitable regulations for North America. We can't be in isolation without America because pollution is blown this way. T -A: It seems health services amalgamation is being implemented slowly. Will it save money? Johns: Sure. We have five hospitals that sometimes provide the same services; some of them have the same equipment that is only being used From my standpoint, after the deficit, it's to. get Huron County recognized and make people aware we're large in some very important areas. . With health care and being the Parliamentary Assistant to (the Minister of) Health when the rural health care policy was coming down, I tried Very hard to make sure everyone recognized there had to be a difference. I'm not the kind ofperson who wants to stand up and vote against the party, but 1 want to work with the party to make the right decisions. We had meeting after meeting that was called by the PA's office to say "Let's -talk about rural health. 1 think that's important." From that standpoint, I think ',:, • ' ve been some good changes and results from a rural memberl- .here and have a PA's job when that was -going through. i71A: What has been the best thing you've accomplished for Huron? I JohnO: If the. government hadn't recognized the difference between the rural health care policy, our district health council report would be very different. From the standpoint that we all know that hospitals are going to be restructured, if it hadn't been for the conti.ival bringing together of people to discuss rural health --because I was in the PA's job, I took that as a project — our health care policy would have been very different. It might not have been as pallitabte for all of us. -_We started off .with the same ratio across the province and to get our rural health care. policy that looks like the one where there are emergency 'services and diagnostic things, where there are actually going to be some more services, maybe the beds won't be what the people want, but I think that's something. I don't think that's a real recognized itembut I'm not the kind of person that stands up and says "Guess what I'm doing today." = That was important for me to work on that (Rural Health Care Policy) and 1 think that there are still some things we don't like about it but it's better. What's really good about it is we're going to have emergency services in every community. We're going to have an ability to "get doctors and maintain them. That. was one of the concerns in the north. We haven't had as much of that issue down here. We're going to. We have some doctors who will be retiring in the next 10, 15 and 20 years. We need to be able to retain doctors. Getting the hospitals to say the'offices could be in the hospital and it's a turnkey operation will attract -more doctors for us.. T -A: Is there anything you'd do differently? Johns: I have always found and will always find it a difficult balance - to meet the needs of all the things I could do in Huron County, all the events I could be at and the government, especially when you're in a PA's - role, they want you to be down there: When I was in health, I would spend A lot of time down there. I'd go down Sunday night, come back late Thursday night and do constituency. work Friday..- In the first two years, I would have liked to have been in the community more. 1 find that balance difficult and we've tried to do it differently in the last little while so that people see me more. I think - people have always been able to get an appointment, but they don't always see me in,thecommunity. As a general rule, it has been successful for a new politician two years out. I've tried to meet the constituent's needs. T -A: What else would you like your constituents to know about your work? • - • . Johns: For the first two years I was the PA to (the Minister of) Health. I was working on health issues and the Rural Health Care Policy along with dialysis and a lot of other things that have come into the community. I was moved this year at my request to try to look at different branchcs of the government. I was moved to (the Ministry of Environment and) - Energy. I am working on the Ontario Hydro restructuring and we'll be coming out with a white paper in the next few weeks about how we can provide more reasonable cost hydro because many of our. surrounding areas pay less for hydro than we do and at the same time give us safe, reliable power. We also have excess capacity because of our nuclear plants and we need to sell that to the States but we're not able to do so right now because of some regulatory rulings. . We have a large debt that's guaranteed by each of us tax payers at $31 billion. We need to beseiling thatexcess power to the States so we can pay off that debt. It's a really economic issue and I've really enjoyed it. With Bruce (Nuclear Power Development) next door, it's an important issue. A lot of our residents in the north part of the riding work there and to find a balance for people to maintain their jobs, especially in this area because they're good paying jobs, and to get hydro for us who have houses. I'm excited about that. _ I'm also a member on the committee that looks at all policies before they go through cabinet. We sit more often and for more hours to look at policies more in-depth. How it would effect Huron County is one of the reasons I'm there. When. they come up with some policy, I say "Well this isn't good for Huron County because that's.a Toronto solution to this problem." . • It gives Huron County an ability to say things at,every stage of the policy-making process and I think that's important for me to help me understand policy and for Huron County it's good to have someone at the some -very table I think it's an important stage for Huron. As we've been going -through policy for the past six Months, things have been integrated as a result of Huron's stand for example, the Farm .Practices (Protection Act). Many people in Huron believed that's a good bill and so when it came to the table, I triAto give it the boost it needed to move through quickly. I was also involved in the welfare: We pay welfare costs for all people in the province and in Huron County we're very cautious about how we put people on welfare. We know that the people truly in need, as the general rule, I would think. We don't have the huge discretionary costs involved in granting welfare that we have in other areas. It was my statement that if it runs without discretionary costs in Huron County, why wouldn't it run without them in Ottawa. Let's just look at it and see if this is the right appro:,;.h for all the taxpayers in the province. I try very hard to integrate Huron into all the policies and 1 don't know if people think this is successful or not. I guess they'll tell me at the next election. 1 hope people are pleased. It's important to me that they know that i work very hard and spcnd a lot of time at it and call people to find out what they think about things ahead of time. 1 hope we have some participatory democracy here. My staff keeps track of who calls, and what they thought about. I get those reports and i read them and try to put those in the caucus. i can't get everything implemented but I try as hard as I can to represent. Bureaucracy is still incredible. We still have a long way to go. Some people can't fight through the bureaucracy. Along the line the government and myself have made some mistakes and we that affects people's lives and we will fix them as fast as possible and we've done some things well. To work through it the first time is difficult so you have all of those calls and you have people who are saying "Great job," and some saying "When's the next election." The only thing i would like to have reported differently is that the deficit numbers are down even further, but we ale till going to balance in the four years. I would have liked it to take less time but it's a step in thc right direction. T -A: is there anything you wanted to de specifically for Huron County .when you were elected? Johns: It's important for everyone to recognize that every community is not the same throughout Ontario. The thing I've recognized most since i've gone to Queen's Park is you really have to stand up for some fundamental things that are different between Huron County and Toronto. i've tried very hard through my private member's bill about rural life and how we need to maintain a different life and there are different measures of success for Huron County than there are for Toronto. We alt want to make.money and feed our families but there are other things we need to be concerned about. We're concerned about the environment, about maintaining agricultural land. being able to have jobs in a rural setting. I've tried very hard to make those differences recognized when we're deciding on policy. The main issue I have is the deficit which effects kids everywhere. Some of the things that have been rural versus urban -based and the decision-making process is the rural health care policy. I don't think another government has said "There's a difference between rural and urban." • We have tried very hard to get the kids in Huron recognized with the education policy where every kid (throughout the province) deserves the same amount of money. I think that all rural members need to be an integral part and haven't really been recognized before. I've tried very hard to remember that and say "Is this the same policy for Huron County as it should be for Toronto." From my standpoint of doing things for Huron County, l think the agricultural community in the past has been an easy arca to say "We can let that slide for a little while," I've tried very hard to represent them in this arca in what's good for agriculture. It's the second leading driver of income for the province. How can we set that on more of a pedestal?