Tory talks tourism

Conservative Leader John Tory and with Parry Sound – Muskoka MPP Norm Miller pay a visit to the area and talk tourism.

Still looking for a place to run in a by-election in order to have a seat at Queen’s Park, Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory took a break and toured North Bay and area Thursday.

Standing in front of the Chief Commanda II and with Parry Sound – Muskoka MPP Norm Miller at his side, Tory addressed the province’s struggling tourism industry stating that Premier Dalton McGuinty has done nothing to help the industry instead has just shrugged his shoulders expecting the hard times to pass.

“I think that we have seen a situation this summer where the tourism situation has been nowhere near what it could have been and nowhere near what it should be.”

“It’s floundering instead of thriving and I think that that really rests at the feet of, in part, the McGuinty Government and their failure to take any extraordinary actions to deal with what are a series of extraordinary circumstances we face right now,” he told reporters.

Tory says his party’s call for the government to remove the Retail Sales Tax on Ontario hotels and attractions for the summer would have given outfitters some relief while battling a strong dollar and high gas prices.

“We believe that would do two things, first we believe that would give families a break when they’ve been struggling all year long to cope with high gas prices and higher taxes and all kinds of things that are making their lives more difficult.”

“And secondly we believe it would provide a stimulus for tourist operators in Northern Ontario and elsewhere by in effect giving people a bit of a deal,” he says.

“Mr. McGuinty has done nothing, I don’t expect he’ll accept every one of our ideas that Mr. Miller and I put forward, but I do expect if he doesn’t like ours that he would have some of his own. And instead he kind of shrugged his shoulders and left the tourist industry to fend for itself.”

Tory admits that it is not just Ontario or Canada alone that is feeling the pinch of high gas prices and admits the wet summer has done nothing to bolster tourism, but says McGuinty still should have done something.

“People are struggling across the province but to me that is all the more reason why Mr. McGuinty should have moved to do something like we did.”

During the stopover Tory toured East Ferris and Bonfield to have a firsthand look at the road damage caused by Tuesday's downpour. Tory says he is confident that the province will come through with emergency funding.

“I’m confident that when it comes to this kind of thing the Ontario government over many decades has responded sensitively and properly to make sure that these municipalities had some of the money they needed to rebuild these roads,” he says.

“Cause there’s some big rebuilding projects that have to be done just to give people access to their own homes and so on.”