Moose FM CHPB 98.1 - Cochrane

NDP Leader for Ontario Andrea Horwath stopped by in a tour of the north to hear the issues from the community. Horwath says the issues that are affecting the Timmins, Kapuskasing, Cochrane, and Iroquois Falls areas are very similar to each other. She says that none of these issues are new and she believes the government has ignored the needs of the North for far too long. It seems as though Southern Ontario is making decisions for the north but not based on any northern input.Horwath says just because there has been a lack of serious attention to northern Ontario over the past few years doesn’t mean that has to continue and she says the NDP is committed to that. She is going to carry the issues after her northern tour ends in the form of a platform the NDP will prepare for the next election.

Back in 1973 the Conservative government wanted to extend the provincial sales tax to heating and electricity rates. A group of about 500 northern citizens formed a tax repeal committee that petitioned with 24,000 signatures opposing the tax grab. At the time North Bay resident Ed Deibel led the group and managed to get then Premier Davis to withdraw his proposal. Today a similar situation is reoccurring in the HST. And now NOHP party leader Deibel is promising to make as its cornerstone principle, the removal of the HST on oil, gas and electricity that heat northern homes and businesses and repeal the tax on fuel and gasoline. Deibel believes McGuinty and his cronies are fools to think Northerners will sit back and watch their heritage destroyed. He claims they will not be bought by a handful of crumbs and empty promises thrown by Queen’s Park.