Reid Takes Heat For Government Record At All-Candidates Meetings

Oct 08, 2015

On two occasions over the past week, the four candidates vying for the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston seat in the October 19 federal election appeared at public meetings to answer a broad range of questions from the public.

Well-attended meetings took place at the Sydenham Legion on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake on Monday, October 5.

A broad range of questions was asked at each meeting, and after two hours there were still questioners waiting as the meeting ended. On the whole, the questioners opposed the current government direction on particular issues and the three opposition candidates spent most of their time outlining how their party would make changes.

In many cases, incumbent Scott Reid took issue with the premise of the questions, citing dollar amounts spent to address problems.

For example, when asked about health care funding, Reid pointed out that the federal transfer has been increasing by 6% per year over the last five years, and will be pegged to economic growth over the next five years, with a minimum increase of 3% per year if the Conservatives are re-elected.

By contrast, NDP candidate John Fenik said that the federal government has shown a lack of leadership by not sitting with the provincial premiers to talk about “innovative ways to deal with what is coming, issues such as the need for more clinics and more doctors.”

Phil Archambault of the Liberal Party, who has worked as a consultant in the heath care sector and currently works at Providence Care hospital in Kingston, said the “major problem is we have a system designed for the acute care needs of the past, not the chronic care needs of an aging population. It takes leadership at the federal level to manage this, and that starts with sitting down with the premiers.”

Anita Payne of the Green Party said that the Greens “would convene a council of Canadians so all levels of government would be involved.”

One of the issues that came up at the Sydenham meeting but not at the meeting in Sharbot Lake was the closure of the prison farms in Kingston.

On that issue, Phil Archambault said if elected he would meet with advocates for the return of the prison farm to talk about bringing it back. John Fenik said the NDP would bring back the prison farm program, and Anita Payne said she would also work on the issue.

Scott Reid, however, said that the research showed that the prison farm was not effective.

“In terms of preparing inmates for job placement once they are released, and since recidivism is greatly reduced when former inmates have employment once they leave prison, the focus has shifted to other programs.”

Anita Payne said that in her career as a teacher, “The reason for teaching many of the subjects was to prepare students to live in the world, not always to get a job. The healing effect of working with soil for people in institutions cannot be tossed out so easily,” she said.

This issue also had an airing at a candidates’ meeting in Kingston on Thursday, October 2, which was attended by three of the four Lanark-Frontenac-Kington candidates but not Scott Reid, who had a prior commitment. The four candidates in the Kingston and the Islands meeting also attended that meeting. The prison farm issue strikes a chord in that riding and even the Conservative candidate Andy Brooke, a retired RCMP officer, said he supports the reinstatement of the prison farms.

Another issue that surfaced in Sharbot Lake and Sydenham was climate change. There again the three opposition party candidates talked about what their parties’ plans were to reverse what they all saw as a dismal track record under the Harper regime.

Scott responded that emissions decreased by 3.1% between 2005 and 2013, while the economy grew by 12%, which he said “came about as the result of the sector by sector regulatory approach that the government has undertaken” (see sidebar).

When the fact that Canada has not signed the UN declaration of Aboriginal rights was raised by a questioner, Phil Archambault talked about the lack of action on the Kelowna accord and said the Liberals are willing to take the issues on, pointing out as well that he is one of 15 Aboriginal candidates running for the Liberal Party in this election (he is a registered Métis, a Micmac descendent on his mother’s side)

John Fenik said the NDP would form a cabinet level committee to look at all of the infrastructure issues on reserves.

“It's tragic how a prime minister can refuse to meet with the chiefs and how a government can neglect such an important issue,” said Fenik.

Scott Reid said that the government has spent $400 million over 2 years on social housing on reserves; built 18 water and waste water facilities benefiting 44,000 people; invested $500 million in 2014 building new schools; and invested $200 million over five years supporting First Nations students in post-secondary programs.

The candidates have one more all-candidates’ meeting scheduled, in Almonte. Advance polling for the election is set for this weekend, and Election Day is October 19.

(Editor’s note: We have conducted interviews with the candidates for profiles that will appear in next week's edition of the Frontenac News. We also plan to post those interviews at Frontenacnews.ca early this weekend to benefit those who are planning to vote in the advance polls.)

Fact Check on Climate Change

Environment Canada data confirms Reid's assertion of a 3.1% decrease, although the reason it came about is another matter. The province that drove the national decrease is Ontario, and the electricity and transportation sectors are those that drove the Ontario decrease.

(In 2005, emissions in Ontario were 211 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. By 2013, Ontario was down to 170. By contrast Alberta's output was 234 in 2005 and 267 in 2013)

While federal regulations affect the transportation sector, the decrease in the electricity sector is attributed to the closure of coal-fired plants, which was a provincial initiative alone.