Federal NDP candidate for Nipissing-Timiskaming Rob Boulet opened his North Bay campaign office over the weekend with help from Charlie Angus NDP candidate for Timmins-James Bay.
Speaking to party faithful at his Ferguson Street headquarters, Boulet said the NDP has outlined a platform geared specifically to Northern Ontario called “A New Deal for Northern Ontario.”
“The environment is the number one issue for me. Other issues we’re hearing from people are pharma care, dental care, housing, addiction, and mental health. Our plan is to provide services for that and get people the help that they need,” said Boulet.
“With pharma care, we’re going to get everyone covered, their medicines covered, their dental covered. Head to toe pharma care is part of our plan. As part of job creation, we’re going to transition our economy into a green economy. We’re going to create 300,000 green jobs nationally and we’re going to provide training so people can migrate into those jobs if they don’t have those backgrounds.
Angus said when knocking on doors, people are growing concerned about economic insecurity.
“We’re the only party to put out a northern Ontario platform. And that platform speaks to Northern Ontario issues, like the need to have the federal government play a part in the restoration of the Northlander which would be a huge benefit to North Bay,” said Angus.
“The need to deal with the shortfall in adequate housing, to actually put resources in and say we will build new housing, new housing units. These are practical solutions. We want to establish FedNor as a stand-alone agency. When you have a stand-alone agency, you have a clear budget and that budget can be used for economic diversification,” said Angus who suggested closing tax loopholes for the wealthy to help pay for their plan.
“We’re going to increase taxes on the super-rich. A one per cent tax on people making over $20 million a year because that group has so much money, that will bring in at least $10 billion into our economy. We’re saying everyone else pays their fair share, it is time we stop mollycoddling the super-rich who are putting money into offshore havens.”
When it comes to climate change Angus said the NDP will establish a climate bank for infrastructure funding for alternative energies.
“We will do a massive retrofit program for every building in the country to reduce what is coming out of our homes and then that will also reduce costs and according to the parliamentary budget officer raise 300,000 new jobs. But we will also set limits for industry. Industry needs to play a role.”
In Nipissing-Timiskaming, Boulet is running against Liberal candidate Anthony Rota, Jordy Carr of the Conservative party, Mark King representing the People’s Party of Canada and Alex Gomm of the Green Party.
The Federal Election day is Monday, October 21.
