Hyper Local

NRU
May 30, 2018
Rachael Williams

With the provincial election one week away, GTA candidates are campaigning on hyperlocal, hot-button issues that could help set them apart from their respective party platforms. 

Transit, hydro rates, affordable housing and health care have been at the forefront of the campaign as candidates push to win a seat in the Ontario legislature. With the number of electoral districts increasing from 107 to 124, some candidates in the newly-formed GTA ridings are relying on their knowledge of local issues to push ahead of the competition.

King-Vaughan Liberal candidate Marilyn Iafrate is using the cancelled Vaughan condo project at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre to promote greater consumer protection in the housing industry. 

“There has to be more intense scrutiny over failed projects,” she told NRU in an interview. “This issue goes unabated and no one takes it seriously.” The failed Cosmos condominium, a three-tower high-rise condominium project at Highway 7 near Jane Street, was abruptly cancelled in April, leaving 1,100 buyers without a future home. 

Iafrate says she would enact legislation that would make it more difficult for builders to collect deposits until they have presented a fully costed-out formula that would ensure the project gets completed. Hamilton-West-Ancaster- Dundas NDP candidate Sandy Shaw told NRU that if elected, she would conduct a thorough analysis of the Code Zero ambulance emergencies in Hamilton, which have skyrocketed to their highest levels in five years. Code Zero occurs when there is only one (or zero) ambulances across the city that can be dispatched in an emergency. 

“This is an illustration of a broken system. We need to be protecting those essential services, not putting them under threat,” said Shaw, making reference to Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford’s repeated calls for “efficiencies” in the public sector. 

Whitby Green Party candidate Stacey Leadbetter said she would re-open the discussion around tolls on Highway 412. The province began tolling on the new Highway 407 and Highway 412 in February 2017. “Now, it’s empty.

It would be used so much more if you didn’t have to pay for it and it would alleviate congestion on surrounding road networks,”  Leadbetter also told NRU that she would aggressively pursue redevelopment opportunities for brownfields in Whitby, some of which are located in the downtown.

Brampton North Green Party candidate Pauline Thornham will attempt to revive the controversial Brampton LRT debate if elected. In October 2015, Brampton council voted in opposition to a fully-funded light rail transit system that would have connected Port Credit to the downtown.

“Brampton had a great opportunity to have a (not entirely) ‘free’ LRT built by the province... In my opinion, that was a bad decision,” she said in an emailed statement, vowing to revisit alternative transit opportunities north of Steeles Avenue.
The construction of a mental health hub in Markham-Stouffville was top of mind for Liberal candidate Helena Jaczek, who noted the increased impact of mental health especially on children and adolescents.

“The hub would provide all necessary services other than in-patient hospital care,” she told NRU.

Nearly all of the 12 candidates interviewed by NRU committed to protecting the Greenbelt from developer encroachment. Referencing a video that showed Ford privately assuring developers he would “open a big chunk” of protected land in the GTHA to build housing, the candidates committed to protecting the 800,000-hectare swath of lands from future development.

“We are surrounded by beautiful, verdant farmland that is being eaten up by development,” said Barrie-Innisfil Green Party candidate Bonnie North. “Let’s expand the Greenbelt all the way up through Simcoe County and let’s also look at expanding the blue belt.”

The blue belt refers to critical water systems that are part of a provincial study area located adjacent to the Greenbelt.

Ford has since recanted his position after intense public backlash.

The candidates also vowed to combat traffic gridlock, lobby for two-way all-day GO service, reduce hospital wait times, curb housing prices, lower hydro costs and create opportunities to build affordable housing through sound public policy.

The provincial election will take place on June 7, 2018.

NOTE: NRU reached out to all candidates running in the new provincial ridings. None of the Progressive Conservative Party candidates responded to interview requests.