The Ontario Liberal Leader was in Thunder Bay on Thursday to officially open the Thunder Bay Ontario Liberals Campaign Office.
Bonnie Crombie delivered her campaign goals for the province and the region.
She plans on focusing her attention on healthcare, housing, and the cost of living.
“We know that we have 28,000 people without family doctors here in the Thunder Bay area, can you imagine one in four people?” said Crombie. “Now I know the hospital is great, but if you don’t have access to a doctor what’s a great hospital? It’s not helpful.”
She highlighted Premier Ford’s inability to end hallway healthcare and that we need more doctors.
“That’s why we’re running on healthcare and doctors and assuring that every one of you in this room and, everyone in Thunder Bay has access to a family doctor,” highlighted Crombie. “Then you can go to your beautiful hospital and you don’t have to wait 10, 12, 15 hours to be seen.”
The party hopes to get everyone a family doctor within four years.
When it comes to affordability, although appreciated, the liberals do not support Ford’s $200 rebate cheques.
“The same amount of money, the $3 billion that he spent on cheques,” added Crombie, “we’re going to put into health care, and it’s going to bring us 3100 new doctors to ensure that everyone in Ontario has access to a family doctor.”
The provincial liberals are taking a different approach to putting money back in your pocket.
Crombie highlighted goals like cutting the small business tax in half from 3.2 to 1.6 per cent.
They estimate that this will save businesses roughly $18,000 per year.
“You can hire more people, train more people, protect your business because we believe in small business. They are the engine of our economy, they’re 98 per cent of our economy.”
There is also a campaign promise for non-business owners as well.
“We’re going to cut income tax on anyone earning $75,000 or less, we’re gonna cut it 22 per cent.”
Other proposed changes included taking the HST off home heating and hydro which the liberal’s estimate would save residents $1150 per year.
Crombie also highlighted that they have a plan to build more affordable housing but did not get into details on how.
She did however have a plan to make it cheaper for developers and home buyers.
“We are going to eliminate the hidden taxes at the sale, they’re called development charges, but they’re really at tax.”
The final promises for the province include reforming the Ontario Building Fund into the Better Community Fund and reforming the landlord-tenant board.
Locally the liberals want to put plans in place to support the region, but Crombie was unable to go into details on specifics.
“We need some strategies to address many of the issues that you have up here, both with respect to natural resources development and also your infrastructure needs.”
She also supports family health teams but highlighted that the province also needs to bring more doctors to the region.
“We are incentivizing doctors to return to the profession. We have a plan to recruit more med students particularly here in the north, doubling the size of the residency programs, doubling the size of the practice.”
“Working to attract family doctors who left the discipline because they’ve gone to other lucrative medical disciplines. We’re gonna bring them back. We’re going to compensate them properly and we’re gonna give if they agree to practice in the north, they’ll sign a multi-year agreement we’ll give you free medical school medical training.”
She added that they would pay doctors more if they relocated to smaller towns and northern communities.
When questioned about paramedics in the region, there was no specific response on how that would be addressed, but it was called a priority.
The party would also like to see more shelters and affordable homes.
“We need a strategy that builds housing that’s affordable supportive housing with the wrap-around services that are required.”
Crombie is remaining in Thunder Bay on Friday and is expected to make a few stops around the city.
