Premier Wynne faces the voters at Town Hall meeting

December 20, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
With an election coming soon, Premier Kathleen Wynne is trying to touch base with voters.
She held the latest of her Town Hall meetings in Brampton last Wednesday.
She spent more than an hour fielding questions from the roughly 300 people on hand on a range of issues, including the economy, her lawsuit against Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, etc.
One man asked if the suit could have been avoided.
“I think the truth is an important issue,” Wynne said, adding the whole thing could be dropped if Brown apologizes for the remarks he made.
Most in the room were impressed when Campbell’s Cross resident Rayanna Ramoutar raised a couple of issues with Wynne.
“I want to be a politician when I grow up,” the Grade 5 student at Herb Campbell Public School told her.
“I read about you at school today,” she added. “I didn’t even know I was going to meet you today.”
Her issues included dealing with homeless people. She said she knew of a homeless man when she lived in Brampton, and her family used to give him food and clothes. He had a long walk to get to the shelter.
“It was just really sad to me,” Rayanna said, asking if it could be possible to have a shuttle service for people to get to shelters.
She also commented her school was among those supporting the Caledon OPP Cram the Cruiser program, with some people donating items that they hate. She said people who want to support food drives should give money.
“You’re going to make a great politician because you care about things,” Wynne told her.
“You don’t have to be a politician to help people,” one man in the audience called out to Rayanna.
Wynne also said there are a lot of things government can do to deal with poverty, depending on what level is involved. She added the Province works with local governments to help them take care of people. A big issue is dealing with homelessness and increasing the amount of money available for affordable housing.
“There are still people who are living on the streets, and that is not acceptable,” Wynne declared.
She added some municipalities have vans that drive around at night looking for homeless people who might need help.
Addressing food banks, Wynne said there are some people making minimum wage who have to use them. She stressed that people who work full-time should be able to make enough money to support themselves.
Rayanna was pretty impressed with what she heard, and with getting to meet the Premier.
“I thought it was great,” she declared after the meeting. “I thought she had a lot of great ideas.”
The make-up of Peel Regional Council was raised by Brampton Councillor Gael Miles. She said the City has been seeking a commitment since 2004 for fairer representation for Brampton.
“We’ve gone through the process four times,” she said, adding the only person who can get Brampton equal representation is the Premier.
Miles added the number of seats at the legislature have been increased. “Would you please do the same for us,” she appealed.
“I am very aware of this challenge,” Wynne told her, adding it was the principle of local democracy that led her to get involved in the process. There is a process in place to let the Region decide on the composition of council, and she admitted it hasn’t worked.
Wynne also said if there’s no concensus after 2018, the municipal affairs minister will have the authority to make the necessary changes.
There were questions about Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017. One man argued it will put vulnerable people at risk.
“It’s really important to me that we look at the whole context we operate in,” Wynne said, pointing out there are thousands of people working for minimum wage who can’t make ends meet.
“That’s unacceptable,” she declared.
She added this is a period of economic growth and low unemployment. That means everyone should be feeling the benefits, but she said that’s not the case.
Wynne did say the government is looking at reducing the burden on not-for-profit agencies so they can keep helping these people.
One man pointed out retailers are going to be hurting when the minimum wage goes up. One idea he suggested would help would be to let the private sector get involved in the ale of marijuana.
“We need a safe and responsible system,” Wynne replied, adding it has to be a system that protects young people and underminds the black market.
“Does ontario have a balanced budget?” one woman asked the Premier.
“Yes, we do,” was her reply.
She agreed there have been suggestions, such as from the Auditor General, stating there are accounting disputes. But Wynne said the government brought in its own experts. She added the opposition parties have accepted the government’s numbers.
One man questioned her about the future of basic income supports to replace social assistance.
Wynne said society is coming to grips with a changing economy, and how to reconcile the fast pace of change. She said there will be workers who are going to be dislocated, adding the social assistance system has not served them well. She added basic income is a pilot project, and it’s time to gather information to see if the outcomes are an improvement.
One man complained how auto insurance rates are based on the postal code in which a person lives.
“This is not fair at all,” he declared.
“This is a very big issue,” Wynne agreed, adding the government has been working to change things, “but it’s not enough.”
She said experts believe the system is broken and needs to be rebuilt. That would include a system that doesn’t treat geography as such an important factor.
Addressing health care issues, Wynne said it’s part of what defines the country. She added the way health care is provided has served well in the past, but there are still challenges. She did point out the government has announced the addition of 37 beds at Brampton Civic Hospital.
The sale of Hydro One came up, with a man from Mississauga telling Wynne about 80 per cent of Ontarians were opposed to it.
Wynne countered she made a commitment to build infrastructure across the province, and a way had to be found to fund it. Selling some of Hydro, or as she put it, “broadening the ownership,” was a way to do that.
She also said she recently returned from a trip to the Far East (China, Vietnam and Hong Kong), and she said she found a huge appetite for learning how to get infrastructure built.
One man commented that his daughter had been kept out of her college classes for five weeks because of the recent strike. Wynne agreed thousands of students went through hardship because the strike went as long as it did.
“We’ve learned from that,” she said.
She added there is a mechanism for dealing with public education strikes when they go too long, but not for colleges.
“I’m really sorry she had to go through that,” she told the man