Wynne on transit, minimum wage, pensions, ice storm
Q&A with Premier in Thornhill as she campaigns for byelection candidate Yeung Racco

Thornhill Liberal
January 20, 2014
By Tim Kelly

Premier Kathleen Wynne, who called byelections in Niagara and Thornhill last week for Thursday, Feb. 13, made several campaign stops with Thornhill Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco on Monday. The pair also sat down to speak to the Thornhill Liberal for a few minutes at the Centre Street Deli. Here is an edited transcript of that interview:

Q: All five of the candidates so far in Thornhill are women and the premiers of Canada’s four largest provinces are women. What does that say about women in politics right now?

Premier Kathleen Wynne: I hope it says we’ve started to change the dynamics in politics. People asked me when I was chairing the Federation of Premiers – there were six premiers who were women at that point – people were saying, is this a trend? Who knows, who can predict that? I think what we’re seeing is more women candidates coming along. We’re seeing that take hold and I think that’s a very good thing.

Q: As far as the subway extension from Finch Station north to Richmond Hill, is there going to be any move (by the province) to make progress on it in the next one, two or five years?

Premier Wynne: So, let’s just talk about where we’re at with that. That has been an issue Sandra has pushed, I’ve been at meetings with Sandra where she has raised that issue, Reza Moridi (Richmond Hill MPP) raises that issue consistently, we’re building the Spadina line and those subway stops are being built right now to push that line up into Thornhill.

The Richmond Hill line is part of the Big Move so it’s on the books, it is part of the plan, it was moved up in priority by Metrolinx in the last couple of years so we know it's something that’s critical. It’s dependent on other things happening as part of the Big Move. The big issue for me is we are the government that’s built transit since 2003.

My fear is that somehow that would stop. If our government doesn’t continue that momentum, we won’t get those lines done. We’ve got a party in Opposition that doesn’t have a plan to build transit, the NDP has no plan to build transit, they’ve opposed everything we’ve brought forward and so, having grown up in Richmond Hill, I know how much change there’s been between Richmond Hill and Toronto, it’s unrecognizable from when I was a kid growing up.

So, there’s no denying the $640 million that we’ve already put into transit, has to continue but we have to continue to add to that.

Q: So we get all of this investment going into Niagara now in the wineries and the hospital down there, what could we get in Thornhill that would match that investment in Niagara ($100 million in goodies).

Premier Wynne: You know, the $640 million that I was talking about that has been put into transit since 2003, it’s hard to match that in a single jurisdiction around the province. It’s a huge investment, the money that’s going in every day to build that Spadina line, it’s major, the money that’s going in to create venues in York Region for the Pan Am Games, is extremely important.

Q: Where are we at on ice storm emergency relief funding?

Premier: There is a process, I had a conversation with Hazel McCallion last week before our meeting with all the municipalities. It will take some time to sort out all the costs that municipalities incurred, what are the things that they can look after themselves, but we fully engaged the Minister of Municipal Affairs, we fully engaged the municipalities.

Sandra Yeung Racco: The Premier was the only leader during the ice storm who was out there helping the residents, talking to them, seeing what they need. I didn’t see where the PC leader was, I didn’t see where the NDP leader was at all and this was, I remember I was so impressed that on the 24th of December she’s out there with the people because they were having issues. Where were the rest?

Q: What’s going to be in the budget with respect to transit funding, what can we expect? Are we going to get tax increases, what’s going to fund the Big Move?

Premier: I’m not going to preempt the budget; we’re in the process of putting that together. We’ve said we’re going to bring something forward. I completely get that people want to pay for the transit that is in their communities. People ask me if they’re in the north if they’re going to have to pay for GTA transit. That is not what we have said we’re going to do, but what’s really critical to me is that we keep building. The details of the plan will be in the budget in the spring.

Q: Are you also going to introduce a new pension plan for Ontario?

Premier: People are not saving enough, that’s just the reality. We don’t seem to be able to get the federal government to take this on as an issue. Somebody’s got to be able to look after the interests of people into the future. We’re taking on that responsibility and we’re going to present an Ontario plan that my hope is maybe other provinces will want to get involved with.

The organizations of seniors, CARP, retired persons, they are advocating very strongly for this, they are very concerned about this issue. It’s not going to help them, they’re already retired, they’ve already made their plans and they’re already living according to what they’ve saved, but they see their kids and their grandkids, I see my kids and my grandkids and I want them to have some security and that’s why we’re going to bring a plan forward.

Sandra Yeung Racco: Premier Wynne is the only leader that’s actually talking about this. Tim Hudak, Andrea Horwath, they run away. It’s a tough issue, but we’re tackling it, because we’re not afraid of tough issues, we want to move ahead and we want to do the right thing for the province.

Q: Are you going to raise the minimum wage (above current $10.25 per hour, set in 2010)?

Premier: So we struck a panel and one of my concerns about the minimum wage is it’s always been tied to political whim, there’s been no systematic rationale for how you raise the minimum wage. The call right now is for $14. We’re not going to go to $14, that would be a real shock to small businesses, particularly, but we have asked the panel to look at what would be a rational way of indexing the minimum wage. They’re going to report very shortly and I think you’ll see an announcement well before the budget.

Q: Will it go up, though?

Premier: We’ll wait for the advice. The whole point of striking the panel was to ask them for advice on how to raise the minimum wage. It’s not whether we raise, it’s how we raise it and what are the increments and how do we make that progress sustainable over the next decade.

Q: Can you promise Ontarians there will be no gas plant scandals or anything like that, can you guarantee that?

Premier: Well, there are very few guarantees in life, but what I can say is I can guarantee that I will be absolutely up front with the people of Ontario about how we are going to make sure that doesn’t happen again and I’m going to do everything in my power to avoid that kind of decision-making and I think the most important thing I can do to avoid that kind of decision-making is to include people earlier on in those processes because the community was not included the way they should have been.

And it’s something we need to be open about what we’re thinking about. That’s what our open government promises are about. It’s opening up the decision-making process to the public...one of the reasons that I make myself so available to people is that I want those questions, I want people to talk to me about what I’m thinking and how we’re making decisions.

Sandra Yeung Racco: That’s the leadership that we can see with the Premier, that she’s open, that she’s very transparent. That’s the reason why I want to work with her, that’s the way I always operate and I love the way the Premier operates.

Premier: Sandra speaks her mind and that’s the kind of person I want to have around.