Midwestern Newspapers asked the Huron-Bruce provincial election candidates to answer seven questions. Below are the responses of Shelley Blackmore, Liberal Party of Ontario.
Tell us a bit about yourself and why you want to Huron-Bruce’s MPP.
It is an honour to be the Ontario Liberal Candidate for Huron-Bruce. My husband and I have lived on a farm in Howick Township for over 20 years. As a mother and a grandmother, it is my priority to pass legislation that will protect our environment and build strong communities for future generations.
I am a retired principal, having spent 38 years advocating for my students and families in the Avon-Maitland District School Board. My experience on the Board of Directors of the Huron-Perth Centre for Youth and Children, as a foster parent for the Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society and volunteering in leadership roles with the Perth-Huron United Way has given me a unique perspective on the needs of our most vulnerable citizens.
I am running as your Liberal Candidate because I believe the Ontario Liberals can deliver the supports and programs desperately needed in Rural Ontario. I want to do everything I can to build strong communities in Huron-Bruce. It is Time for Change in Rural Ontario. Recognizing that the rural voice is not always heard at Queen’s Park, the Ontario Liberals will fight for rural Ontarians and address issues through our unique rural lens.
I have the experience, competence and leadership skills to be a strong advocate for our riding. I will listen to your concerns and bring my passion and energy to work for you at Queen’s Park.
What will your party do to address affordable housing?
The housing crisis is the number one issue I’m hearing across the riding. We will build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years, which will include at least 138,000 much needed supportive housing and retain and repair tens of thousands of existing homes, creating an estimated 150,000 jobs per year. Tax homes currently sitting empty, put a use-it-or-lose-it tax on developers land sitting empty and establish the Ontario Home Building Corporation to finance and build affordable homes. We’ll provide municipalities and housing support providers with $100 million per year to promote a Housing First approach to ending chronic homelessness. We will bring back rent control to all homes across Ontario to ensure all renters have smaller, more predictable rent increases, and provide renters with a path to ownership and create a legal framework that protects renters to opt into rent-to-own agreements.
Many hospitals across southwestern Ontario have, at some point over the past year, reduced services and hours of their emergency department due to a lack of staff, particularly in nursing. What will your party do to address the staffing shortages in health care, both now and long-term?
We know that rural healthcare has its own challenges and needs a model that reflects our rural reality. The Ontario Liberals will ensure that rural Ontarians have access to the same quality of health care, education and opportunity as the rest of the province. We will invest in additional health services and cover costs for medical and nursing students working in rural communities and ensure everyone has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. We will remove the barriers that prevent internationally trained professionals from working in our system. We will repeal Bill 124 and ensure that our nurses are paid a fair wage and have full time positions. We will also raise PSW wages to at least $25 per hour. We’ll train and hire 100,000 nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers over the next six years as we replace retiring workers and expand our system. Our investment in home care of $2 billion annually will relieve some of the pressures on our hospital systems as well.
Huron-Bruce is a rapidly growing region, and in order to grow, land is needed. Much of the newly developed land was once agricultural land. According to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario is losing 175 acres of agricultural land to urban development every day. What will your party do to help protect agricultural land?
As I travel throughout our riding, I see growth in most of our small towns, which is a good thing, but decisions about development must be made with community input. Through Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs), the Ford government have rezoned land without any public or environmental consultation and paved over farmlands, wetlands and greenspaces. The Ontario Liberals will scrap MZOs and replace them with a new rules-based process limited to critical provincial projects only, such as affordable housing or major employment projects. We will work with municipalities to expand zoning options. Communities will be encouraged to intensify development on the existing urban footprint such as underused industrial and commercial sites and avoid sprawl. We need more multi-level dwellings in order to protect our farmland. New developments need to be planned within walking distance of essential services.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in the rear-view mirror (hopefully), economic recovery is an issue front of mind for many, including small business owners. What is your party’s plan for the province’s economy coming out of the pandemic?
Small and medium sized businesses are the economic engine of Huron-Bruce and they have suffered the most during the pandemic. We will eliminate corporate taxes for two years for small businesses and loan an additional 300 million to small businesses and fund programs to help them go digital. We’ll make strategic investments in industries like tourism, music, culture and sports. We’ll help entrepreneurs and small businesses by eliminating incorporation fees and launch a new 311- type service to help businesses navigate government supports. We will help the agrifood sector export more goods. We will reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses and cap credit card fees charged to these businesses. We will also add the option of self-employment to the high school curriculum.
Adding to the difficulty of economic recovery is what many are calling a labour shortage – our region’s unemployment rate was 3.3 per cent in April, second lowest in Ontario. How does your party plan on addressing the labour shortage?
Most sectors in Huron-Bruce are struggling to find workers. One of the main barriers to attracting and maintaining workers is finding affordable housing, so our housing solutions will help. Raising minimum wage to $16 per hour and working toward a living wage will enable people to have a better quality of life in our communities. We need to do a better job of welcoming newcomers to our communities, and we will bring in more internationally-trained professionals with skills we need. Our new arrivals from Ukraine are anxious to find jobs in their host communities and we will facilitate these types of transitions. We need to build strong, vibrant communities that reflect the Liberal values of diversity and inclusion here in Huron-Bruce. We will encourage co-op education in our high schools to attract, train and retain students in our local labour markets.
Why should a voter in Huron-Bruce vote for you and your party in this election?
Voters should vote for myself as an Ontario Liberal because we are the party that has listened to people in Huron-Bruce and across the province to find out what issues matter to them. Our platform consultation was the biggest in our party’s history: 25 open forums, 500 consultation meetings and over 28,000 participants. In total, Ontarians submitted over 38,000 ideas and cast over 230,000 votes to create this platform, Ontario, A Place to Grow.
We have a fully costed, long term plan to help us recover from the pandemic and rebuild what’s always made Ontario strong. Education. Health care. Public services that support families. These are all key to a better future and economic dignity for our families. I also believe that to tackle complex issues like climate change, we will need collaboration between all elected officials, regardless of party affiliation. My job as your MPP is to listen to your concerns and help you and your families find the solutions you need. I will be your voice at Queen’s Park.
