Session: 38:2
Date: 5-Apr-2007

WAR OF 1812

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): Let me start my remarks by saying that I'm pleased to stand today and support the resolution on the creation of a War of 1812 bicentennial commemoration commission by my colleague sitting right beside me, the member from York North.

The War of 1812 was a defining moment certainly in our history as Canadians, and indeed for those now living in the province of Ontario. I phoned my brother, who is quite a history buff and a history teacher, to get a follow-up, and I could not, of course, in the time we are allowed, say all the things that he told me about the War of 1812. But his theme was that there is not enough emphasis put on the history of our great country that is being taught to our children, and on the noticeable achievements of our ancestors before us. It is taking a backseat in our schools. Our students can name past US Presidents, but they can't name maybe the heroes of the War of 1812, and I think that is quite a tragedy that we should start to rectify.

So despite the fact that many causes of the War of 1812 were geographically far removed from our colony of Upper Canada at that time, our lands proved to be the immediate battleground of much of the war, and many of my colleagues have mentioned what battles took place in their ridings. They didn't come as far north and east as my riding of Haliburton-Victoria-Brock. But it was a significant demonstration by Canadians to remain independent of the United States and loyal to the British crown. The war of 1812 was the first time that native Canadians, French Canadians and British colonials fought together in defence of their land. I believe there were even some regiments from as far away as Newfoundland that were sent to help the United Empire Loyalists up here in Ontario.

The numbers would not exceed 100,000 in total, but in the face of adversity, Canadians of all backgrounds proved themselves and heroes emerged, heroes such as Sir Isaac Brock. To many, the hero of Upper Canada is best remembered as a brilliant leader and strategist in battle. He was promoted to Major General of the "49th foot" in 1811 and was made provisional administrator of Upper Canada.



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Despite Brock's early preparations for the upcoming war, his men were gravely outnumbered. He was concerned about the loyalties of some of the people to the British crown, but the province's inhabitants consisted at that point, as I said, of United Empire Loyalists and of "late Loyalists," who had just recently arrived from the United States. Brock's immediate superior, the Governor of Canada, Sir George Provost, urged Brock to remain on the defensive and not risk battle, but Sir Isaac Brock would go to lead his men to fight valiantly on behalf of the crown. And even when fatally wounded, he encouraged his York volunteers to push on. So Brock's memory as the fallen hero and saviour of Upper Canada has remained extraordinarily strong in Ontario's history, and we must ensure that those efforts are not forgotten.

Similarly, we must remember the efforts of another great hero, Ms. Laura Secord, whose portrait hangs in this very building. While billeting American soldiers in her home, she and her husband overheard the American plan to attack the British forces, and with help from the native forces, who were allies of the British, Laura Secord was able to complete the arduous, I believe 20-mile journey, to warn the local British commander, Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of the impending American attack. So the courage and tenacity displayed in the efforts on this occasion, June 1813, places her certainly in the forefront of the province's heroines. I believe there's a simple frame building, restored in 1971, that remains as a memorial to the exceptional patriotism that she showed.

We want our children to understand and preserve stories like those of Isaac Brock, Laura Secord and native leaders like Tecumseh, and we need to commemorate those people who fought so valiantly to defend people of the province that we as MPPs now work so hard to represent.

So the creation of a War of 1812 bicentennial commission would be a significant step towards adequately honouring and celebrating our history in this province. I want to commend the member from York North for bringing this forward and look for all-parties' support on that. Thank you.

2007 ONTARIO BUDGET

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): I thank the member from Nipissing for her kind words when she spoke earlier. I hope everyone is feeling well in the Legislature at this moment, please.

Mr. Ferreira: But if we're not, we're in good hands.

Ms. Scott: "If we're not, we're in good hands": a good compliment to all nurses. You saw that at two sporting events this week, where nurses came to the rescue and revived people. So, well done, all the nurses. Nurses are great, and certainly an integral part of our health care system.

But this afternoon we're speaking on the Budget Measures Act, April 2007, and some feedback that I've received in my riding and some criticisms-we are in opposition-of the budget, in a helpful way. I'm sure the government will take it as very helpful.

We've seen this government increase spending by $22 billion annually, which is a large amount of money, taxpayers' money, coming out of their pockets. We're pretty concerned how they're spending it. Some would say "reckless." I would tend to agree. In a lot of areas, some reckless spending.

The statistics of how much the debt has risen, how much spending there is, saying anything to get elected-we are in an election year. We see that Ontario has lost over 120,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs over the past two years alone. We see that disposable incomes in Ontario are growing at the slowest rate in the country. They've grown annually by 4% over the previous four years, so fully 0.8% slower than the national average. Total program spending by the McGuinty government has skyrocketed by an average of 7.9% each year.

Those are a lot of numbers, but we're just saying that you're spending a lot of money. Are people getting any better services, especially in the health sector, which we'll start with?

We've seen the long-term-care association, in respect to their great disappointment in the budget, saying, "The cupboard is bare for long-term care." They brought in a bill, the Long-Term Care Act. It was consistently said out there: "Where are the capital dollars to upgrade our B and C homes?" They were said by the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to be a budgetary item: "We'll deal with it in the budget." But the budget has come and gone, and the long-term-care homes and the association are not happy at all; very upset. We've got rural communities that are upset. Is there any stability for long-term-care centres to be set up and to stay there? Will all of a sudden the government say, "We don't want you there; we want you somewhere else"? Very unstable for residents and families. There have been many caring, concerned staff come in to me to say, "The workloads are incredible. We can't provide the care we want to." Those men and women who work in long-term-care centres take those patients in like they are their family. They treat them really well. They're just overburdened. The present McGuinty government said that they would promise $6,000 per resident. We saw them get maybe one more minute of care, I think, in this budget, as it's broken down here. So they're offering 50 cents per resident, one more minute of care, after they made that promise of $6,000 per resident that they would increase their level of care to. Again, a broken promise. It's not a big surprise, but it's a continuing theme. At least they've been consistent in that.

The previous government invested a lot in new long-term-care centres. I know that most of the members of the Legislature saw new long-term-care homes go up in their ridings. That took the wait-lists away for a while, but they're back. I think in every riding we face the same situation, the wait-lists for long-term-care beds. That's not acceptable. We all knew the demographics. We all knew that we had an aging population and we needed more long-term-care facilities. The government has a leadership role to have a plan to deal with that. But again, a recurring theme with the present government: Where's the plan? Where's the plan for anything? In long-term care they have not delivered. The member for Kitchener-Waterloo has done a great job as critic for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, has heard the demands from the long-term-care sector, their needs. And, rightfully so, they are disappointed beyond belief. And how could we treat our seniors, the people who built our province, that way? It's embarrassing. They said in their 2003 platform promise, "We will build a seniors strategy that guarantees our seniors be treated with respect and dignity." Well, they haven't planned how to do it-all words again, no action, no plan.


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When they made their promise to ensure we have enough nurses-"We're going to increase the nurses"-they got seven-and-a-half-month contracts, I think, signed. That's not putting in a stable nursing environment. That's not doing anything to attract back nurses who have gone to other countries to work. That's not doing anything to encourage nurses to get into the nursing program, to know they'll have a full-time job when they graduate. There's no stability in that. As we've said before, they certainly are the backbone of the health care system. That promise, again, fell short. We're six months from an election and there are still not enough nurses out there. We hear, "nurse shortage, nurse shortage," and no guarantee of full-time employment in many of the areas, especially in rural Ontario.

The family health teams: We've had some family health team announcements. Are they up and running and fully staffed? No. Would they like a better system to get up and running? Yes. I hear that a lot from my riding. Two family health centres announced theirs. But they need some more incentives to get up and running and to be fully servicing the people in their communities that they want to. I thank those communities for applying and trying to get the health care to their citizens that they need. I know in my riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, we have about 30,000 orphaned patients.

Back to the wait times: The wait times in the province are still bad. They promised, "We will work with experts to set and meet maximum needs based on waiting time for care." Well, wait times in the province are well above target: for MRIs, 28 days-provincial average, 105 days; knee replacement target, 182 days-provincial average, 307 days; hip replacement target, 182-provincial average, 257. It's very disappointing that they are not servicing the health care needs of Ontarians. I guess we will judge on October 10-coming soon-what the people of Ontario think. They're paying more. Are they getting better health care?

The majority of my riding is in the eastern Ontario region and is represented quite ably by the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus, who have done an outstanding job of representing the rural population of eastern Ontario. It represents 13 eastern Ontario governments. It includes all of my riding except the Brock townships. It includes the Haliburton, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes area. They have been diligent in getting their message out to the government. They asked for specific things in the budget that would help rural Ontario. What did they say in respect to 2007 Ontario budget?

It "fails to address major problems that `threaten the economic health' of rural communities in eastern Ontario'....

"`The budget didn't even touch on two of our most serious concerns: The state of the region's roads and bridges, and the cost we incur to provide services to crown lands.'"

That's from Doug Struthers, who is the chairman of the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus. He did say one good thing, and I have to say there was one good part in the budget, in respect to broadband, with which I agree. There's $10 million for broadband services in rural communities across southern Ontario. We have certainly had a need for more broadband infrastructure up in my riding of Haliburton-Victoria-Brock. I've written to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade and the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal for that assistance, because that is a huge economic boost to a community to have high-speed Internet broadband in their ridings. There were programs available before the 2003 election. Nothing has come to assist in any huge way these municipalities, these communities that need high-speed infrastructure. There was a pilot project that was done in the Apsley part of my riding in north Kawartha, for $70,000. They took that and partnered with the municipality, with private enterprise. They grew that to well over $700,000 in partnerships. They put more towers up in remote areas, because we're challenged for signals, in my riding, with rocks and trees. And they got a call centre in one of their areas. They created employment. Just an example of municipalities, that if you give them a little incentive, they can grow it. I commend the north Kawartha township and Apsley for their diligence and foresight in increasing their economic infrastructure up there. They just needed that little bit of an incentive, which is part of what the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus was asking for. I hope that there's some broadband monies coming to my riding of Haliburton-Victoria-Brock because we need that in rural Ontario. We need the economic boost. We really need it in eastern Ontario.

We asked for an eastern Ontario secretariat. I know that colleagues from this side of the caucus have asked for an eastern Ontario prosperity fund and an eastern Ontario secretariat to take the lead, similar to what is available to northern Ontario, because we have a region that's really hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs, by lower population, by more roads and bridges than other parts of Ontario. We've been diligent in asking for that. I know that Ric McGee, who's the city of Kawartha Lakes mayor now, said that the province needs to make a significant investment in the future of eastern Ontario by creating an eastern Ontario prosperity fund. "Our region is blessed with abundant natural resources, a location near major markets, many diverse communities, and great people. But we're also dealing with the harsh realities of declining industries, the out-migration of our young people and average annual family incomes 17% lower than the rest of the province." That's from the mayor of the city of Kawartha Lakes, Ric McGee, and I agree: This is a serious problem.

We're happy with the $10-million broadband, but you certainly can do more with that infrastructure.

Mr. Leal: Good first step.

Ms. Scott: It's a good first step; let's carry it on.

Agriculture: It's certainly an urban budget-agriculture, small business, the backbone of rural Ontario's economy. You have said repeatedly that you were going to make agriculture a lead ministry; that's what we heard in 2003. It's the lead ministry in cuts, because for three straight years in a row you've cut the agriculture budget.

The farmers got together-the farmers forgotten by the Liberal government-and proposed a risk management program. They actually sat and created a solution. Did we see that come in in the budget? No. Has the Minister of Agriculture listened to the needs of rural Ontario? No. The farmers-the second-largest industry in Ontario is agriculture and agriculture businesses-should be a predominant ministry in a government. And what we've seen is cuts and cuts again. Association of Municipalities of Ontario president Doug Reycraft said, "There is still a need for better income protection for farmers."

We need to assist our farmers if we want to grow safe, secure food, be able to feed ourselves, buy more Ontario products, encourage people, educate people. The need for farming in the province of Ontario-we grow the best foods. We should be assisting the farmers the best we can so that they can stay in business.

In the city of Kawartha Lakes, in 2006, 50 farmers left the farm. Tragedy; I don't want to see that happening in my rural communities. It just erodes our rural infrastructure, our businesses. People have no idea what it does to rural communities. If you want an Ontario like that-I certainly don't want it. I want farmers to stay out there. I want my rural communities to succeed. This government has got to have a much more assistive, progressive, optimistic view towards agriculture. I think the Minister of Agriculture was in Peterborough the day after the budget, and I know that many farmers went there. I hope she heard their concerns and needs.

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Another topic is Best Start child care, and I know that the member from Peterborough is quite aware of this issue in that the city of Kawartha Lakes-Haliburton is the only service manager that got designated zero Best Start spaces. I kept saying, "Are you sure you've got that right? Can we help you with some more information about that?" It means a huge thing to the children in the area-no designation of Best Start spaces; zero, as I said before; the only service provider that did not get any in Ontario. I've asked the minister, and hopefully she will re-look at that. I know the member from Peterborough was trying to assist us in that way because it is about the children. If they are not looked after, what does that say about our future? I certainly don't want my area discriminated against as compared to the rest.

Mr. Leal: I'm going to help you.

Ms. Scott: The member from Peterborough says he's going to help me, and I certainly would appreciate any assistance in influencing the minister to reconsider her decision on that at all.

I know I don't have a whole lot of time left, and we could never touch all the areas in the budget, but we can talk about the environment. Would that be all right over there, with the members opposite?

What is this? The green government? Somehow I think that that got lost in some non-budgetary announcement. Where was the help for the environment? The federal Conservative government gave you money. You didn't even spend that. "Coming soon to a place near you: We're going to address environment needs." Three and a half years into the mandate, six months before the election-extending the date again, I'm sure. Look at the coal-fired plants. They've broken that promise once, twice, three times. Do we really ever know when they're going to implement that promise to close the coal-fired plants?

The Clean Water Act-downloading to municipalities. Everybody wants clean water, but downloading to municipalities and landowners is no way to help the environment.

Climate change-it's like they don't even know the word over there. The federal government is going to provide nearly $600 million. They increased the budget just such a little bit on the environment that it's negligible. Environment is right up there with health care as one of the top concerns of the people of Ontario, and they haven't addressed it.

Let me see. The Environment Commissioner addressed it. He said, "Neglecting Our Obligations." I'd have to say that the Ministry of the Environment was all but ignored in the budget. You'd think that she had been pleading with Minister of Finance to say, "We need to meet those promises that we made in the 2003 election campaign. We haven't met them yet, but we've got six months. We can at least introduce something."

We saw a bill introduced on Tuesday of this week that-again, who knows how long the legislative agenda will be, but it's two and a half months so far that we know of. So we'd be happy to see more details of that legislation. But the government does the legislative agenda. You'd think, if they were serious, they would have actually introduced this a little bit earlier. But what can we say? They had to wait until there was more pressure. They certainly got the money from the federal government, so we can't hear any more of that griping on that side about their failure to deal with the climate-


Interjection.
Ms. Scott: Yes, it's all solved. The environment's okay. "Don't worry; be happy. We've got this in control."

Let's talk property assessments for a little bit. I've got a quote from the St. Catharines Standard here that says, "View from Across the Province....

"The Liberal plan to reform property assessments will do little to bring accountability to a flawed system. Homeowners can still expect assessment increases, but they will just be averaged over a four-year term. At the end of the four years, the increase paid by the homeowner will still be the same.

"The Liberal plan avoids the systemic reform required to ensure property assessments are transparent and fair." That's from the St. Catharines Standard. I'm just reading a comment from them about property assessment.

It's a huge problem. I think that's the first thing that was on my desk when I got elected in 2003 was problems with property assessments. The government plan over there was, "Oh, let's look into it. Let's get a plan, then let's freeze it while things are being implemented."

The member from Erie-Lincoln brought forward a good resolution to property assessments-a very positive response across the province-of establishing a 5% cap on property assessment increases for as long as the individual owns their home, including the transfer from one spouse to the other-very reasonable. I've got a lot of seniors and people on fixed incomes in my riding who can't afford to stay in their homes. It's awful. Affordable housing-we don't have enough affordable housing for them to go to. They are between a rock and a hard place.
Increasing electricity rates, increasing property taxes are forcing seniors and hard-working families and low-income families out of their homes. It's awful.

We have to have a better plan for Ontario. That's what we've seen consistently in this government: no plan; broken promises; say anything to get elected; spend, spend, spend. Where is the strategy? The people of Ontario deserve better.

I have to wrap up my comments on the budget. I have so much more to say, but we can say it yet again, hopefully in a time to come. Thank you very much for your attention this afternoon.

The Acting Speaker: Further debate?

Mr. Ferreira: I'm glad to be able to follow the wise words of the member for Victoria-Haliburton-Brock. Did I get that right?

Ms. Scott: Yes, you did.

Mr. Ferreira: Yes, and commend her for her actions, jumping to the rescue earlier today.