This Thursday, voters in the riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex will cast ballots in a by-election to replace former MPP Monte McNaughton.
Blackburn Media asked the candidates a series of questions about some of the top issues facing the riding. Their answers are below. Some of the answers have been edited for space.
Steve Pinsonneault, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
I know how important it is to support farmers while we build more homes. Our job isn’t to dictate to municipalities where they build houses. Our job is to give them the tools to build homes where it makes sense. That’s why we are investing billions in housing-enabling infrastructure funding, and through our most recent housing plan, we are helping speed up approvals for new homes while respecting municipalities and the role they play in balancing housing with local priorities like preserving farmland. We are also making it easier to build basement apartments and garden suites to support gentle density and rolling out a modular housing strategy to help build high-quality homes quickly and at a lower cost.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
Across the province, we are investing more than $27 billion to build the roads, highways, and bridges we need to help support community growth across Ontario and get drivers out of gridlock. This includes the recent rehabilitation of Highway 402 in Middlesex County and London.
To help municipalities build more homes, over the last two years, our Ontario PC team has invested more than $3 billion in new housing-enabling infrastructure funding. That includes a $1 billion Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and our $825 million Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, on top of our $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund, which rewards municipalities that meet their housing targets.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding who don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
The Ontario PCs launched the largest medical school expansion in nearly 20 years and added over 12,500 new doctors since 2018, including a nearly 10 per cent increase in family physicians. We’ve also broken down barriers for internationally and inter-provincially educated health care workers to work in Ontario.
Earlier this year, the Ontario PCs undertook the largest expansion of interprofessional primary care teams in the province’s history, adding 78 new and expanded teams, including right here in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. We’re continuing to build on that investment through the most recent provincial budget, investing over half-a-billion dollars to connect over 600,000 people across Ontario to a team in their community.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
I’ve always opposed this project. I share the concerns of our community that the landfill expansion could harm the environment and the resulting traffic will jeopardize our community. I’m very pleased the government listened and has begun an Environmental Assessment. Every concern around this project should be addressed. If they aren’t, the project shouldn’t go ahead.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high-speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
High-speed internet is a necessity no matter where you live. The Ontario PCs are taking concrete steps to bring reliable high-speed internet to families in every corner of the province, including here in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. With more than $4 billion invested to bring service across the province, the Ontario PCs have undertaken the largest single investment in high-speed internet in any province by any government in Canadian history. To date, more than 65,000 homes, farms, and businesses in Southwestern Ontario, have received access to reliable broadband through the province’s SWIFT program.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
The Ontario PCs are always looking for ways to put more money back into people’s pockets, including by cutting the gas tax by over 10 cents a litre and eliminating the license plate renewal fee, saving Ontario families hundreds of dollars every year. They froze licence and photo card fees, saving drivers almost $66 million, and ended the Drive Clean Program, saving taxpayers over $40 million every single year. As your representative, I will continue to look for ways for families to keep more of their hard-earned money.
Kathryn Shailer, New Democratic Party of Ontario:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
We must address housing affordability by implementing effective measures. This includes reinstating genuine rent control and enacting the NDP's Rent Stabilization Act to eliminate the loophole allowing landlords to increase rent for new tenants beyond the set guidelines. Additionally, we must pass the NDP's Homes Ontario motion to establish a public provincial agency tasked with constructing at least 250,000 new affordable and non-market homes on public land throughout the province.
Regarding the preservation of farmland, the NDP has proposed the Protecting Agricultural Land Act. This legislation aims to safeguard existing farmland by preventing its rezoning or alteration of use without undergoing an Agricultural Impact Assessment.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
It's crucial that we address the pressing issue of aging infrastructure in rural areas. The province must prioritize reinvestment in rural infrastructure, especially in light of the urgent need for climate-resilient adaptations.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding that don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
Right now, 2 million people in Ontario are without a family doctor. This not only puts their health at risk, but it’s also putting tremendous strain on our already-overburdened emergency rooms. The Ontario NDP is calling on the government to hire more administrative and interdisciplinary health staff to take the burden of paperwork off doctors so they can spend more time providing care to patients. According to the Ontario Medical Association, doctors spend as much as 19 hours a week—40 percent of their time—following up with patients, filling out forms and performing other administrative work that could be done by administrative staff, and other interdisciplinary health staff. We can free up doctors’ time by getting them access to an integrated primary care team, and this would be equivalent to adding 2,000 doctors to the system.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
We must stop the expansion immediately. The local community vehemently opposes this expansion, rightfully so—it's situated too close to both the community itself and the river. What's occurring in Dresden will likely happen again in other small rural communities. We urgently need more sustainable, long-term waste management solutions, rather than allowing major cities to indiscriminately dump their waste into small towns, regardless of the consequences.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
In today's world, high-speed internet is not a luxury; it's a necessity. Recent years have underscored this reality more than ever, as it's essential for staying connected to classrooms, healthcare providers, and running successful businesses. The NDP believes that urgent investments are imperative to accelerate broadband expansion across Ontario, ensuring that all communities gain access to high-speed internet without delay.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
The Official Opposition NDP is emphasizing five key solutions that the government could implement right away to alleviate the burdens faced by Ontarians:
Firstly, addressing the housing affordability crisis is paramount. This includes reinstating genuine rent control measures and passing the NDP's Rent Stabilization Act to eliminate loopholes that allow landlords to exploit tenants. Additionally, the NDP's Homes Ontario motion proposes the creation of a public provincial agency tasked with constructing at least 250,000 new affordable and non-market homes on public land across the province.
Secondly, making childcare more affordable is essential. This entails providing Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and non-ECE childcare staff with proper raises, and striving towards the goal of $10-a-day childcare province-wide. Without adequate wages, the availability of childcare may be compromised due to staffing shortages.
Thirdly, ensuring home energy affordability is crucial. Introducing measures such as making heat pumps free and offering grants and zero-interest financing for energy-efficient retrofits can help families lower their home heating bills and improve energy efficiency.
Fourthly, addressing the affordability of groceries is vital. The NDP proposes the creation of an independent consumer watchdog to prevent exploitation and investigate and penalize corporate predators. Additionally, establishing a provincial food strategy that supports agriculture jobs across various sectors can help mitigate the rising cost of groceries.
Lastly, doubling social assistance rates is imperative. Doubling rates for Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) recipients is necessary to enable approximately 900,000 Ontarians relying on social assistance to afford basic necessities like food, shelter, and medicine.
Cathy Burghardt-Jesson, Ontario Liberal Party:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
Our plan will create more housing options within existing communities, increase the supply of rental units to the market bringing rent down to a more affordable range for tenants, allow more family-sized units to be built and empower municipalities to set and achieve ambitious housing targets.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
We believe in investing in municipal infrastructure to enable local communities to get more homes built faster while keeping property taxes low.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding that don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
Currently, across the province there are 2.2 million people without a family doctor. We need to rapidly add more seats to existing medical schools, create more residency spaces, and introduce multi-year service agreements to attract new medical graduates to stay in rural communities upon graduation in exchange for free or reduced medical school tuition.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
I will fight to get our community concerns heard and put a stop to the Dresden dump.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
To ensure that rural communities in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and elsewhere in the province have access to affordable, reliable, and fast broadband internet service, I’ll champion incentivizing private-sector investments and ensure publicly-funded broadband expansion programs are implemented expeditiously so that rural and farming communities can get fast and reliable internet.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
We are facing an affordability crisis - the costs of gas, food, housing and everyday essentials are skyrocketing, especially for those on ODSP who are finding it harder and harder, each and every day, to get by.
Our plan calls for the reinstatement of fair rent control everywhere in Ontario to put an end to skyhigh rent hikes, provide municipalities with funding for emergency rental banks, extend coverage of basic mental healthcare through OHIP, double the current rate of ODSP for Ontario's most vulnerable, and reinstate the basic income pilot project.
Andraena Tilgner, Green Party of Ontario:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
Right now, our province is losing 319 acres of prime farmland everyday to urban sprawl. As Greens, we would put a stop to this by freezing urban boundaries and legalizing gentle density (including fourplexes and four stories as of right and midrises from six to 11 stories on transit corridors) so we can build the homes we need without destroying our $50 billion food and farming economy.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
To ensure that rural communities have the resources they need to thrive, Greens will reverse decades of cost downloading onto municipalities and local property taxpayers and continue pushing the government to provide stable, predictable funding to municipalities to repair and strengthen their infrastructure. We’ll continue to push for a dedicated $2B per year Climate Adaptation Fund to help municipalities adapt to the realities of climate change and prepare their infrastructure for the road ahead.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding that don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
Decades of neglect have eroded the public healthcare systems we all rely on daily. Greens have a plan to properly fund all healthcare sectors – primary care, long-term care, home and community care, mental healthcare and hospital care – to bring our per-capita healthcare funding up to national standards. We will expand access to family health teams in communities across the province, increasing opportunities for physicians to join team-based models of care, and reducing administrative burdens within the primary care system.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
The landfill and recycling site being proposed in Dresden is a massive environmental hazard that cannot be allowed to proceed. We will continue our calls on the Ford government to reject YORK1’s application and commit to protecting the long-term health of Sydenham River and the communities surrounding it.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
Rural Ontario communities have been waiting too long for reliable access to high-speed internet. Greens support making broadband internet an essential service and would work to roll out high-speed access across the province.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
For ordinary Ontarians, life is more expensive than ever under the current government. We are focused on delivering real relief where Ontarians need it most, starting with:
● Putting forward bold solutions to rein in soaring housing costs by legalizing housing, protecting renters and getting the government back into the business of affordable housing;
● Minimizing the cost of climate chaos by pushing to get Ontario off expensive fossil fuels, invest in low-cost renewables and build affordable, climate-friendly transit options; and
● Protecting public services that Ontarians rely on to make life easier and more affordable, including healthcare, education and support services.
Keith Benn, New Blue Party of Ontario:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
First and foremost, we must protect our farmland. Rapidly increasing our population while continuing to lose 300 acres or more of productive farmland per day in Ontario will never lead to a good outcome. Our provincial government must recognize Ontario’s farmland as a critical and scarce natural resource. I suggest that all prime agricultural areas in the province should be covered by Greenbelt-type protections.
There is, of course, a need to increase the supply of housing for Ontarians, including within rural communities where much of the agricultural workforce resides. However, the creation of new housing must not consume our already dwindling farmland that represents less than about 5% of the province’s land surface. I suggest that new housing should be limited to settled areas, both in larger urban and small-town rural areas of the province where municipal infrastructure is in place and could be expanded with relative ease and in a cost-effective manner.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
I will begin by stating that Ontario’s provincial government must confront the federal government in Ottawa, perhaps alongside other like-minded provincial governments regarding the current unsustainable levels of immigration and also migration. Our country must control immigration in such a way that Ontario and Canada will truly benefit from sustainable population growth. Also, we do not want newly arrived immigrants to find themselves in a country where there is a massive shortage of housing, as well as infrastructure that is insufficient and crumbling.
Directing new housing to settled areas, as suggested above, will help to focus infrastructure investments on upgrading and expanding existing streets, bridges, sewers, drainage and of course schools. The provincial government must also consult and collaborate with municipalities on issues of infrastructure in order to quantify and plan the investments that might be made by the province. Such an increase in costs will demand that the provincial government review, in a transparent manner, where our tax dollars are currently spent and how there are used. Such a review would help to find efficiencies hence providing the necessary funding for expanded and upgraded infrastructure.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding that don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
The shortage of family doctors is hardly new and it highlights the rather shameful failure of our provincial governments in the past decades to properly manage and deliver health care in Ontario. The family doctor shortage must be addressed, first, by increasing the cohorts of students in our medical schools. I would also suggest that admissions preference to our medical schools should be given to qualified Canadian citizens and permanent residents, rather than foreign students, in order to increase the number of new doctors who will provide care to Ontarians.
Also, along with increasing the number of students and interns being trained to practice medicine, there is a need to increase the number of access points for health care services, including family practices. The provincial government should consult with stakeholders to find suitable ways to encourage medical professionals to establish practices in underserved, small town and rural environments.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
My position is that the proposed project is not a good fit for Dresden and that the project should be rejected by the provincial government. To be brief, York1 have said openly that their only reason for choosing the site near Dresden was that they believed they could avoid an Environmental Assessment by obtaining an amendment to an out-of-date Environmental Compliance Approval dating from several decades ago. The Ontario government is now reviewing the possibility of imposing an Environmental Assessment on the York1 proposal; however, we won’t know whether they will follow through until after the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex by-election. If a decision were made to impose an Environmental Assessment it would be critical to have oversight to ensure it was properly completed.
Voters should choose to send me, a true common-sense conservative who is entirely independent of Doug Ford’s PCs, to Queen’s Park where I will hold the government’s feet to the fire should they reveal an inclination to approve the project either before, or following an Environmental Assessment. My scientific and technical skills and experience will serve me well in that task.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
For the agricultural sector, satellite internet service is the most viable and affordable option, at least for the near term until land based high-speed infrastructure could be greatly expanded. The provision of satellite internet service should be opened up to competition in order to ensure quality of service and competitive pricing.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
The shocking increase in the cost of living over the past few years is due largely to so-called “carbon” taxes that drive up costs of energy. More expensive energy then impacts the costs of production and transportation of manufactured goods and food all along the production chain and through delivery to market. Obviously, the increase in energy costs caused by unnecessary taxation also impacts households due to higher electricity and natural gas bills. The elimination of the unnecessary, unjustified and destructive carbon taxes will require a provincial government with the spine to stand up to the dangerous ideologues that control our federal government. Such determination is sorely lacking in our provincial government and requires the presence of a new, common-sense conservative political party to stand up for the people of Ontario.
Stephen Campbell, None of the Above Direct Democracy Party:
1. Ontario continues to experience a housing shortage. While we need to build more homes, it is also vitally important that farmland be protected in this region. What specific steps would you take to make sure that both things are achieved?
I would like to begin with protecting types of Farmland. So, I would like to protect A1 farmland from being taken. We have been losing 319 acres per day for over 20 years and with a growing population we can not afford to be losing fertile soil. I would like to introduce a bill to protect our farmland. At this time, we need affordable row housing or Apartment complexes, so we need to talk with developers to make this happen. We need to get the Federal Government to set immigration levels at a level that we can grow without harming the people of Ontario. We need affordable homes for people in the region plus the people coming into our Province.
2. Aging infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and sewers, continues to be a problem, especially with the province's push to build more homes. What can you do to help municipalities add and replace it without significantly impacting taxpayers?
Again, this leads back to the Federal government. We need acceptable levels of people coming into Ontario so we can put the proper infrastructure in. If the Federal level wants X amount of people coming in, they should by supplying X amount of dollars for infrastructure. Currently the developer is on the hook for the development and infrastructure like new sewers, roads, curbs, transfer stations, this is why all the houses currently on the market are overpriced because they have to recoup the cost. I feel the money should becoming from the Federal government. The last I checked all 20 Major Cities had a C Minus on their sewage systems. There has not been a public viewable report in a while.
3. The family doctor shortage continues to be an issue in this region. There are far too many people in this riding that don’t have a family doctor. What specific steps would you/your party take to increase the number of family doctors?
We do need incentives for Doctors to come out to smaller Communities. However, there is another bigger issue of 1,300 positions need to be filled. During Covid we laid off over 2000 Nurses and Doctors. Doctors like Plastic surgeons that had 2 year waiting lists. We are the only Province in Canada that has not hired back these workers. I believe our current Ontario Majority Party is not hiring them back because their goal is to make our hospitals look bad so they can privatize the hospital industry. So my first steps would be to get some sort of offer to these out of work professionals and see what type of staffing we actually need. Front line staffing would be at the forefront.
4. One of the key issues for the riding is a proposed recycling/landfill facility that would operate just north of Dresden. What is your stance on the proposal being put forth by York1?
The plan has been fiercely opposed by local residents and municipal officials. I am so glad that the Dresden Cared group has been able to be seen and heard in this election. We have learned that old dumps do not have to follow current regulations. And not only do they not have to follow current regulations that I feel the current regulations are not even good enough after reviewing the documents. I would continue to get better regulations at all dumps in the region. Watford is too close to the town, Petrolia was too close, Southwold needs a secondary review for sure as the people of Onieda is currently under a boil water advisory since 2019. They can not even bath their children at this time in the water from the Thames River.
5. High speed internet is no longer a luxury today, it is critical infrastructure. There are still areas of this riding that do not have adequate access to high speed internet. How would you speed up the process of expanding this service to those areas, especially for the agricultural sector?
Running lines is not feasible or responsible. In remote areas you can do a point to point tunnels so rural Canadians can have fast and reliable internet that would be affordable. I was running point to point tunnels in Richmond Hill 20 years ago. There is no reason that this infrastructure. However, this new hydroline that is 500MW lines which is 2X more then the old lines of 240MW could disrupt a point to point tunnel. I would like to look at other options for this recently proposed Hyrdoline that will be cutting LKM apart. I would like a cost analyst of the hydro line vs small scale nuclear or simply reevaluate the whole battery plant in Windsor that it might not be beneficial for this region.
6. It’s no secret that the cost of living has become, for some people, unmanageable. Without talking about your opponents’ policies, what would you do to alleviate the current burden on residents of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex?
Well the current Taxation of people is the biggest problem. We need balanced budgets at all levels of government so we do not have further taxation. I would like the Province of Ontario to have a referendum on the current CARBON TAX. And when we strike down the Carbon tax we will no longer remit or collect the tax like Saskatchewan. Currently people are taxed at about 46% of their income, this is unacceptable. This needs to be lowered so people have money just to live. People can not even afford basic necessities. We could have had a referendum during this by election to save tax payers money but now we will have to have a future referendum but it would be worth it to cut the carbon tax.
**candidates Hilda Walton of the Family Rights Party, and Cynthia Workman of the Ontario Party either did not respond, or we were unable to find contact information for them. In the event we are able to exchange questions and answers with them, they will be added to this post.