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Our sitting MPP Norm Miller spoke to the club. He was joined by his Legislative Assistant Braelyn, who is part of a program to introduce young professionals to the world of politics. The non partisan program underwrites the cost of allowing the candidates to work with a member of parliament in both the sitting party and the opposition. -Norm indicated the two had been touring some small businesses in the Parry Sound area and had attended a round table discussion in Huntsville that afternoon involving stakeholders in the tourism, health care and forestry industries. -He touched on his government's identification of a Provincial deficit that was initially estimated to be $6B but is now projected to be more like $15B, with an annual servicing cost that may hamstring many program initiatives. -He then covered off some of the issues of the day including the Cannabis file and the govt's decision to move from a govt store idea to a more private system. Currently only online sales are allowed but he expects a rollout of outlets in the spring, with emphasis on safety from young adults and children. -The Conservatives are promoting an open for business mandate and plan on reducing some of the 380,000 current business rules that govern our companies -Along those lines was the repeal of Bill 148 and the second leg of the increased minimum wage. While he did not address the impact this has on lower income Ontarians he did say the new bill has an emphasis on encouraging the trades as careers. He also indicated the intent to drop WSIB costs by 30% and said their intent was to balance job growth and employee's compensation -one of the govt's main focuses will be to build more long term care beds and he pointed to the Fairvern relocation as an example. Norm mentioned he is the Parliamentary Asst to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (who hapopens to be Premier Ford). Given Fords busy schedule Norm often finds himself meeting with business and political reps from around the world that want to establish relationships with our Province He also sits on the Public Accounts Committee along with the Province's Auditor. They do value for money audits and drill down to make sure public funds are being well spent. We know from past Auditor's Reports that this is not always the case. One of their main current focuses is how to revamp the Health care spending to get it more effective - likely needs changes to the funding formula Norm thanked Rotary for all they do in our communities. He mentioned his father, former Premier Frank Miller, was a proud Rotarian who loved to sell tickets and now has the Frank Miller award from the Bracebridge club given to their top ticket seller. He also praised the Interact and Rotoract groups and recognized the important role they play. Questions followed related to the trade agreement, tariffs, the sex ed program and he deftly danced/stickhandled around them all. Deb K (future MPP) had the solution to many of our problems by teaching kids at the public and high school level some life skills and financial literacy. Although Barb White was not at the meeting I could hear her saying two words - Junior Achievement! |
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