"Fricot said the region needs to make sure all levels of government are on the same page in order to move major projects like the Ring of Fire chromite mining project forward.
“It means making sure that our knowledge economy . . . is actually having the tools in place to move forward,” he said. “We need to plan properly, and that means having everybody who’s got a piece of the pie take the tools that they bring to the table . . . and matching them up with needs before we need them.”

ECONOMY IS TOP PRIORITY

/>

Kris Ketonen

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 08:00

in

• Thunder Bay’s federal election candidates are getting feisty as Monday’s voting day nears.
  Wednesday night’s Thunder Bay-Superior North federal candidates’ debate hosted by The Chronicle-Journal was nothing if not a fiery affair, with candidates and audience alike getting into the mix.
  The candidates — NDP incumbent Bruce Hyer, Liberal Yves Fricot, Conservative Richard Harvey and the Green Party of Canada’s Scot Kyle — weren’t shy about taking each other on during the 2 1/2-hour event at Lakehead University.
  Interruptions were common as they addressed each other directly over personal and party positions on a variety of issues brought up by the media panel and members of the audience.
  And those issues ran the board, ranging from abolishing the Senate and storing toxic waste in Northern Ontario to the economy, the region’s infrastructure and health care.
  The debate will be re-broadcast on Shaw cable and remain viewable at chroniclejournal.com.
  Candidates were asked how they’d handle the issues facing the region’s First Nations communities, including addiction, housing shortages, suicide and poverty.
  “We will invest in adequate housing on First Nations reserves,” said Hyer as he cited the NDP platform.
  “We will invest in making sure that all people across Canada have clean water, and we will invest in addictions treatments that are truly effective. We will close the gap in education funding in both K-through-12 and also post-secondary so that Aboriginal children have the same rights . . . and opportunities.”
  His fellow candidates said they and their parties had the best approaches to dealing with First Nations’ needs.
  “We will not be successful as a city, we will not be successful as a region, unless the . . . First Nations people in our city, the First Nations in our region, are also successful,” Fricot said. “We’re not going to get there unless we respect each other, unless we’re honest with each other, and unless we both agree that we’ve gotta solve these problems.”
  Harvey made his answer personal, saying the matter comes down to who can best foster good relationships with First Nations people.
  “The reality is that I have that relationship, that personal relationship,” he said. “I have relatives, I have very good friends who I have known all my life. I have three chiefs working with me on my campaign. Why? As one said to me, he said, ‘Richard, I know you’ll listen to us, and you’ll work with us.’”
  Kyle said the matter transcends money.
  “I’m already in a relationship with (First Nations people),” Kyle said. “The addiction? Tremendous problem. . . . It’s tantamount to handing the whisky bottle to them on the portage years ago when we first met them.
  “I would address the relationship between the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors, right on down to the people in the communities.”
  When asked about the economy in the North, Harvey said it’s the “number one priority” for his party.
  “There’s all sorts of other issues that have come up,” he said. “The economy should’ve been the number one priority 37 days ago; it wasn’t. Playing games in Ottawa was the priority, and bringing down the election. . . . We have been putting money into stimulating the economy here in Northwestern Ontario. We have invested unprecedented amounts of money.”
  Hyer said all parties have similar budgets, but where they’re different is where they would spend the money.
  “We have the largest deficit in the history of Canada,” he said. “Where the Conservatives have been spending money, or where they’d like to spend money . . . is megaprisons, jets.
  “But the biggest one of all is massive tax shifts, off of large, very-profitable multi-national corporations, and onto the backs of the middle-class and small business.”
  Kyle said Thunder Bay has incredible potential — farmland, forests, lakes — but it’s going unrealized.
  “We can get our two-by-fours cheaper across the border, and I, for one, am sick of that stuff,” he said.
  Fricot said the region needs to make sure all levels of government are on the same page in order to move major projects like the Ring of Fire chromite mining project forward.
  “It means making sure that our knowledge economy . . . is actually having the tools in place to move forward,” he said. “We need to plan properly, and that means having everybody who’s got a piece of the pie take the tools that they bring to the table . . . and matching them up with needs before we need them.”
  The debate was broadcast live on Shaw cable, as well as streamed on chroniclejournal.com. It will be re-broadcast Friday at 5 p.m., and Saturday at noon. The debate will also remain online for viewing as well.
  Candidates in the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding square off today at 7 p.m. at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin building.