Housing, climate change, and agriculture were a few of several topics up for discussion at a candidates debate in Brighton Thursday night ahead of the October 21 federal election.
On stage at the Fellowship Christian Reformed Church were the following candidates in Northumberland-Peterborough South riding: Kim Rudd (Liberal), Philip Lawrence (Conservative), Mallory MacDonald (NDP), Jeff Wheeldon (Green), and Frank Vaughan (PPC).
LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN REGION
Incumbent MP Kim Rudd said housing wasn’t a simple issue to solve and different people had different needs in the market. Some needed affordable housing while others would be in need of specialized housing for the disabled and others would be first-time homebuyers with completely different needs from those people looking for higher end accommodations.
She was proud that the Liberal government has a national housing strategy committed to investing $50 billion over 10 years into stimulating various kinds of housing and said the money has already created dozens of affordable units in the riding with more on the way.
Kim Rudd. (Photo: Quinte News)
Conservative Phil Lawrence said that with a vacancy rate of less than 1% locally the status quo was obviously not working. He also said that housing needs were varied in the populace and that a Conservative government would partner with the private sector and cut red tape to make it easier to build affordable housing. He also said his government would lengthen the amortization period from 25 to 30 years and ease the stress test now in place to gauge whether people can afford the home they’re considering buying.
Philip Lawrence. (Photo: Quinte News)
The Green Party’s Jeff Wheeldon says a lot of people in the riding couldn’t afford to buy a house with the average price around Cobourg being $508,000, only to turn around and not find a place to rent, with many not able to comfortably afford the rent. His party pledges to create 25,000 new residential units a year for 10 years and to encourage 10,000 renovations a year for 10 years. Wheeldon stressed the mortgage stress test is crucial because too many people would go ahead and buy something they could not actually afford.
Jeff Wheeldon. (Photo: Quinte News)
The People Party of Canada’s Frank Vaughan said high house prices and high rent simply meant demand outstripped supply. He suggested a lot of the demand was from foreign money with immigrants buying up property and existing housing on speculation. He said the country needs to have a serious discussion on immigration immediately. He also said that with three levels of government involved in housing there was much too much red tape which discouraged builders from building.
Frank Vaughan. (Photo: Quinte News)
The NDP’s Mallory MacDonald said her party would build 5,000 new residential units, all zero emission. Also there would be help for renters with up to $5,000 in rental benefits. The NDP would increase the amortization period to 30 years from 25 on a mortgage. There would also be a tax on property buys by foreigners to cut back on speculation and the NDP would remove the GST and HST if builders agree to construct affordable housing.
Mallory MacDonald. (Photo: Quinte News)
SUPPORT SUPPLY MANAGEMENT AND DAIRY INDUSTRY OR NOT
Conservative Philip Lawrence said his party would support the dairy industry and supply management, praising the industry for producing safe, high quality products.
The PPC’s Frank Vaughan said his party would phase supply management out over five years and buy back quota from dairy producers. He stressed that 90% of farms were not protected by regulation and competed on their own. He said the supply management system helps huge business and hurts the poorest in the society by keeping prices high.
The NDP’s Mallory MacDonald said her party would protect the supply management system saying it provided a “safety net” for many farmers. Local food production and promotion would also be a priority along with more research in agriculture.
The Green’s Jeff Wheeldon said his party would continue to support supply management in what he called the most important industry in the country. The Greens would push policies allowing small family farms to flourish.
Liberal Kim Rudd said that in her experience local dairy farmers were not complaining about being badly hurt under the newly negotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement which replaced the NAFTA deal. She said while some quota was given up for dairy producers it wasn’t much. She pointed out that her government brought in some Conservative heavyweights such as former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to negotiate the complex deal because it was a non-partisan issue.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The PPC’s Frank Vaughan said his party would get rid of the carbon tax. There would be no carbon price. He took issue with the doomsday scenarios often cited by many pushing for drastic action on carbon emissions. He read out a list of dire predictions that never came true.
He claimed many scientists including those employed by the government do not agree with generally accepted climate change theory, calling the crisis “a game”.
Liberal Kim Rudd said her government had done more than any other in addressing and planning for climate change and its challenges. Her party would set a zero carbon emission goal to be met by 2050. That would be met by meeting targets each five years. She also said her government has committed to planting two million trees which are natural “carbon sinks” and helping home and apartment building owners become more energy efficient through no interest loans.
Conservative Philip Lawrence said his party was serious about climate change. He said a Conservative government would work with large carbon emitters to reduce carbon output or else pay into an innovation fund. Monies from that fund would pay to develop new technology leading to fewer emissions without damaging the economy. The Conservatives support pipelines to bring Canadian energy to market.
Mallory MacDonald of the NDP disputed Vaughan’s statements that the climate change crisis was not real. She pointed to increasing extreme weather events as proof. Her party would end subsidies to oil and gas companies and have regular audits done to make sure emissions targets were being met. Her party also wants to work with Indigenous people to learn more sustainable conservation methods. Her party does not support more pipelines.
The Green’s Jeff Wheeldon said the first thing his party would do would be to declare a climate emergency and create an all party cabinet to deal with the issue. His party would be much more aggressive in lowering carbon emissions with targets more than double than are now in effect. He said it was time to get away from a carbon based economy, as the Greens believe a clean energy economy would be larger and provide more jobs.
Over 100 people attended the debate which was co-sponsored by the Fellowship Christian Reformed Church and the Brighton-Cramahe Chamber of Commerce.
