Andrea Horwath wants a leaders debate in the north.
She challenged both Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak on a campaign stop in Thunder Bay Thursday to come to Northern Ontario and debate her. Horwath made the challenge after a press release by the Liberals stated the NDP would put a moratorium on development in the north.
"If Mr. McGuinty wants to debate northern policy with me then he should come to the north where I am," Horwath said after a packed rally at the Lakehead Labour Centre. "The reality is we have not said that (about northern development)."
Horwath released the NDP northern platform Thursday. It includes an industrial hydro rate for companies, which would include northern mills. It would be an expansion on an existing rate available for large energy consumers.
"Right now the big players get that break but the little players don’t," Horwath said.
Another highlight includes paying off student debts for doctors who want to go to under-serviced communities in the province. The program would cost about $4 million a year with a maximum of 200 doctors accepted. It would start as soon as possible should the NDP win Oct. 6 Horwath said.
"Providing that kind of relief for them will help them to make the decision to come to under-serviced communities."
The NDP, like the PCs would remove HST from hydro and heating costs. When asked if Horwath would raise taxes to offset that, Horwath said the NDP would rather stop writing blank cheques for corporations by raising their taxes instead. \
"We are not going to be making life less affordable for people," she said.
They would also repeal the controversial Far North Act, something the PCs have also said they would do.
