Election
October 06 2011 Canadian Gazette
16
Agriculture top focus of Pakenham debate BRIER DODGE brier.dodge@metroland.com
PAKENHAM – An all-candidates meeting for the CarletonMississippi Mills riding Sept. 29 covered the basic questions on HST, health care, and global warming. But the event, organized by the Arnprior Region Federation of Agriculture catered to the area farmers, who were armed and ready to go with questions. The queries were asked by organizers and submitted in writing ahead of time. Progressive Conservative candidate Jack MacLaren, who is a past-president of the host organization, had the most direct experience farming, maintaining a farm himself – but other candidates were well versed on agriculture policies. The Family Coalition candidate, Cynthia Bredfeldt, declined to answer several questions, stating she was not briefed on the Family Coalition stance on those particular, specific issues. A hot topic, most heavily supported by MacLaren, was the deregulation of farmers. The NDP’s Liam Duff perhaps said it best, noting that while campaigning, “I talked to one
about that in this election.”
gentleman who told me, ‘too many farmers are spending too much time at their desks filling out forms instead of out at the farms producing the food’.”
HST ON GAS
MARKETING BOARDS The first question asked candidates was about the importance of milk marketing boards, which the federal government is pressuring to remove. All candidates, except Bredfeldt who declined to answer, supported the milk marketing boards, despite federal interferences. “We do our hardest to work at protecting the marketing board,” said The Green Party’s Scott Simser. “The federal government hasn’t agreed to their 60 per cent of the cost (of the business risk management).” “As a farmer in this community, I have a strong sense of how important dairy is,” said MacLaren. “One of the backbones of Ontario because they have a stable income.” JOB CREATION Candidates were asked what their plan was to tackle the second recession - with job creation
Photo by Brier Dodge
All five candidates for Carleton-Mississippi Mills attended the agriculturally-focused debate in Pakenham. the main point raised. Duff ’s strategy was to “grow our way out.” with helping pay salaries for new hires, helping medical students forgive student debt, and overall watching the dollar. “We want to grow our way out, you have to watch where you’re spending your money,” he said. Simser suggested freezing tuition fees in the coming year, and then only increasing them by the rate of inflation. MacLaren wants to target small business growth. “I think
that is the key to success.” Later in the debate he used the example of every small business in Pakenham being able to hire one extra employee, and the huge income boost it could bring to the community. Cornell’s approach was unique to the other three, talking about an innovation strategy. “If you don’t have an innovation strategy in this kind of economy, you’re going to get left behind … it’s investment and venture capital. “We’re the only party talking
Gas prices are a hot topic in the rural areas because of the high percentage of people who relay on their cars to get to work, and the distance they travel. Gas costs can significantly affect a rural family much more than an urban family, with access to public transit. While Liberal Megan Cornell, MacLaren and Simser supported keeping the HST on gas, Duff and Bredfeldt felt it should be eliminated. “HST is broad-based, and the whole concept is that it is as broad-based as possible and not on absolute essentials, such as food, so, no, we would not take it off,” Cornell said. “We think the HST shouldn’t exist on a lot of things - heating and hydro, you need gas to get around. We want to protect you,” Duff said. “Government’s source of income is tax. We have a big debt we need to deal with; there is a limit of how much we have to offer because of the debt load,” MacLaren said See ‘CANDIDATES’ Page 18
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