Rota focuses on the economy in final days of campaign

Heading into the final leg of the campaign Liberal candidate Anthony Rota held a news conference Friday to set some facts straight and address the economy.

“One of the great myths in Canadian federal politics is that the Conservatives are good money managers and good stewards of the economy,” is how Rota began the address.

“The truth is the last Conservative Prime Minister to bring the nation from a deficit position to a surplus was Sir John A. MacDonald in the late 1880s. Since then, Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney quadrupled the national debt, while the current Prime Minister has managed to squander a $13 billion surplus.”

“With one billion dollars spent on the G8 and G20, the millions of dollars that will be wasted if the untendered F-35 deal goes through as planned and a record breaking deficit over $110 billion, clearly the Harper Conservatives are not capable of managing our economy,” charged Rota.

He went on to say that the Liberal Plan focuses on three pillars for the economy: deficit reduction, competitive and affordable tax rates, and spending discipline.

“When one looks at the particulars of our plan, it is easy to see how it will benefit the residents of Nipissing-Timiskaming by creating new jobs and moving our economy forward,” Rota said.

The particulars include:

- An immediate rollback of the $6 billion tax cut for Canada’s wealthiest large corporations – money that will be reinvested into healthcare, homecare and improved pensions for seniors.

- Improving FedNor by making it a separate agency, increasing the value of the fund rethinking the $500 000 limit and increasing the accountability – greater opportunities for investments within projects like the North Bay waterfront, Le Centre de santé communautaire du Témiskaming in New Liskeard and the Mattawa-Bonfield Economic Development Corporation.

- Introducing a balanced and progressive fiscal policy based on deficit reduction. This will result in affordable tax rates, a strong spending discipline, no increase in personal or business taxes and no increase in the GST.

- Innovative measures for growth and job creation that are based on our Canadian Champion Sectors. These three areas of concentration include incentives related to clean resources, health and biosciences, plus digital technology – which will help with our goal to make affordable high-speed internet accessible to every resident of this riding.

- Creation of a Canadian Transportation and Infrastructure Strategy which will provide long-term economic benefits through priorities such as highway and major road improvements, plus municipal infrastructure projects – which will provide local jobs and improvement possibilities throughout the riding.

- Our plan to improve youth employment by providing an 11% tax rebate on EI to small and medium-sized businesses who hire youth between 18 and 25 - will not only help employ our youth here in the north, but will also provide opportunities for our youth.