Provincial Ontario Progressive Conservative Candidate Vic Fedeli sharpened his political campaign on Wednesday by opening his new headquarters at 2650 Trout Lake Road, located at the former Katie's Leader board.
Provincial Ontario Progressive Conservative Candidate Vic Fedeli sharpened his political campaign on Wednesday by opening his new headquarters at 2650 Trout Lake Road, located at the former Katie's Leader board.
Fedeli, jubilant and charming, welcomed throngs of supporters to the event where food was served and speeches were made. Fedeli's charismatic personality then took centre stage as he discussed his party's plans to not only save money for the average Ontarian but to also improve the Ontario government through leadership and organization.
It was a great political moment for Fedeli and for the Conservative party as many left looking hopeful and inspired.
Fedeli shared with his supporters plans that are outlined in the Progressive Conservatives "changebook North", a high gloss, colourful and informative book that is being distributed which contains many of the finer points of the party's plan within.
Some of the highlights in his speech contained promises to cut hydro energy rates, reduce business taxes and to allow income sharing amongst family members, with the intent of saving Ontarians money.
"Our role, when we get elected on October 6th, is to cut taxes,” Fedeli stated.
Fedeli told the crowd that, if elected, he and the Conservatives will introduce immediate relief for families' energy bills. This includes removing the HST from Hydro bills, as well as removing the HST from the cost of home heating. Another immediate step will be the removal of the Debt Retirement Charge from hydro bills.
According to the "changebook" the average Ontario family will save $275 dollars through the cuts in HST off of their heating and natural gas hydro bill. Fedeli says that people living in Northern Ontario will ultimately save considerably more money than those who are living in Southern Ontario.
Fedeli says that they will also put an end to the F.I.T program (Feed-in-Tariff), a "Liberal government scheme" that, in some cases, pays up to 15 times the usual cost of the hydro.
He also promised, through a winning Conservative Provincial government, to reduce the business tax. Fedeli claims that one of the first things that the Liberal government did when they gained power was to raise the business tax.
"We know that's exactly how we kill an economy", Fedeli says. "We saw that in Ontario when we lost 300,000 jobs, 45,000 of them in Northern Ontario."
"We are going to immediately reduce business tax by 10%."
Fedeli says that the Conservatives will also be introducing an income sharing program for families that, once implemented, will save between $400 dollars and $1400 dollars for every family, depending on size and situation.
He says that with the 5% percent savings in income tax and the income splitting that the Conservatives are going to allow, it should be about two or more thousand dollars in immediate savings for every family in Nipissing.
"We're going to give immediate tax relief to you and to your families", says Fedeli. That's what we're about."
When asked how the Conservative will find the money in which to give Ontarians the numerous tax incentives promised, Fedeli claims that the money is already there and costed.
"We don't really have a revenue problem in Ontario, we have a spending problem," Fedeli said.
Fedeli claims that the Provincial Government has increased their spending by 77% within the last 8 years. He compared those numbers to the average business that, he says, has only increased spending by 10% during that same time period.
"It's unheard of during these economic times", says Fedeli.
In the same breath, Fedeli says that the Conservatives will spend $6 billion dollars more in Health Care and $2 billion dollars more in education. They're also going to ask every other ministry to look for 2 cents of waste out of every dollar.
"That 2 cents of waste will pay for all of our plans,", says Fedeli.
Another voting incentive came in the form of a Conservative plan to give the gas tax money to every municipality.
According to "changebook" North, only one out of six Northern municipalities receive any gas tax revenue under Dalton McGuinty's government. Currently there are 144 communities that are asking for their fair share in order to meet their local transportation needs.
The Conservatives say that by sharing the gas tax revenue, it will keep more money in the North and give Northern Ontarians more local decision making power. By doing so, it means that local transportation priorities, such as roads, bridges and buses, will be addressed based on each community's needs.
The Conservative are also promising to allow all Mining Tax revenue from new mines to stay in local communities and First Nations, saying that the communities that build and support the mines will benefit even more from the new development.
The former mayor of North Bay says that he will continue to bring thrust to all of the issues should he be elected as Nipissing MPP this fall.
"Anybody that followed my career as mayor watched me rail for six, seven years that the gas tax should be shared,", he says. "And it fell on deaf ears. That's now been put into the "changebook" as a result of all the efforts that I've made."
Fedeli says that he can gladly take credit for many accomplishments put forth in the Conservative agenda and will continue to sit at the table any time that provincial government actions are written.
"That's how I know that I can support the policies our government will implement."
