Over the next couple of weeks, both our MP and MPP will be visiting Haliburton County.
Jamie Schmale will be in town Monday (April 15). He’s scheduled to be at the Bonnie View Inn from noon to 2 p.m. According to the local Chamber, he’ll be joined by Jonathan Wright, who is president and CEO of NuVista Energy Ltd. The topic is “Alberta Energy Crisis and its impacts on Ontario Business.”
No doubt the real theme will be Schmale and Wright bashing the federal Liberals over their perception that not enough is being done to push through the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Over lunch, there’ll likely be some carbon tax bashing as well.
I caught an interview Schmale did April 1 with Global News Peterborough. Discussing the Ontario carbon tax, he focused on prices going up for gasoline, home heating fuel, groceries and retail. He said life will start to become harder to get by and more expensive.
Pressed for a PC alternative, he said they’re forming policy as we speak. However, he added there are carbon tax alternatives. For example, not allowing municipalities to dump raw sewage in lakes and rivers. Oh, and Norway has achieved zero emissions using the latest technologies, he said.
I will be eager to see a PC plan since the environment, and climate change, is important to me, just as it is to those who have been attending student-led protests every Friday outside the Dysart et al council chambers, not to mention the many, many letters we had this week on the need for more action on climate change.
No doubt some people in Haliburton County want the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to go ahead. And, certainly, some residents are opposed to the federal carbon tax that the Ontario government is fighting. However, many more are not. They should consider attending the Monday event to let our MP know how they feel about both – and other – issues.
In the same vein, MPP Laurie Scott will be in Haliburton Tuesday, April 23. She’ll be at McKecks between 7.30 and 9 a.m. for the chamber’s breakfast club. She’ll no doubt slam the carbon tax. We wonder what she’ll say about climate change inaction since it’s clear there is a growing unrest among her constituents about perceived provincial government environmental failures.
We’ll also see if she touches on the sweeping changes for education. It was the subject of a local student protest here last week. And, what of the future of OHIP?
Let’s see what the former nurse has to say about us going for our next colonoscopies without anesthetic.
Often when our MP and MPP come to town, they preach to the converted. The Chamber, for example, tends to like its Conservative governments, finding them pro-business. They are. The province has made some changes that are definitely probusiness and pro-trades.
However, we would encourage other residents to attend these free and open-tothe-public events. It is your chance to voice your opinions and to ask questions. We’d love to see a diverse crowd at both events.
