It didn’t take long for the Thunder Bay-Superior North candidates’ debate to turn into a verbal sparring match.
Right after the first question was asked to the four candidates at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium Tuesday night, Liberal candidate Michael Gravelle and Progressive Conservative candidate Anthony LeBlanc argued, sometimes over top of each other, about which party’s platform was most accountable. Gravelle said there are problems with both the NDP and Progressive Conservative platform and how those parties plan to pay for them. LeBlanc said he found it sad that Gravelle chose the first question to attack the PCs.
"There’s a hole in your platform Anthony," Gravelle said.
"The only place we’ve heard this from is the Liberal party," LeBlanc said. "Just saying that there’s a hole doesn’t make it real."
The two volleyed back and forth on financial topics, such as the PC plan to remove the debt retirement charge from hydro bills, which Gravelle called a "shell game" until moderator Colin Bruce moved the evening along.
NDP candidate Steve Mantis said the debt is the result of a shift in attitude starting in the '80s that put corporations in front of people. From natural resources to cheap electricity, there is potential for the region to create jobs again, he said.
"Let’s tie the government money to real jobs," Mantis said. "That’s what’s going to see us through the hard times that are coming."
The next two questions had Gravelle defending his government’s Mining Act and its controversial Far North Act. Gravelle said the Far North Act has been an extraordinarily misunderstood piece of legislation. Despite problems, such as a recent flare-up between Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation and an exploration company, there are 80 agreements in place already between First Nation communities and companies.
"We are not going to go down the road we have in the past (with KI)," Gravelle said.
Mantis said looking at the past eight years of development in the north, companies from mining and forestry have been able to do what they want with the land and receive provincial money while bankrupting communities despite the Liberals having said there was consultation.
"Those companies have gotten away with murder," Mantis said.
LeBlanc, repeating his party’s platform that they would scrap Far North Act, said a big problem has been that the province has left First Nations communities and companies on their own to work out disputes.
"It’s been rushed through," LeBlanc said. "Nobody here had the proper consultation."
Green Party candidate Scot Kyle said he has seen the consultation process first hand as a teacher in remote First Nations communities. The discussions never last long and the people living in those communities don’t have a say so their lot in life stays the same.
"You can see the shacks that are there, it’s third-world conditions," Kyle said.
In the rapid-fire round, candidates found plenty of common ground. Kyle was the only candidate to not support a new multiplex in the city. They all agreed to some form of private healthcare, an increase in minimum wage, reopening Big Thunder and funding a new Shelter House initiative for chronic alcohol issues. No candidate agreed that it should have taken two years for expressway construction to conclude and only Mantis agreed to the legalization of marijuana and a made-in-Ontario policy for mineral processing jobs. Only LeBlanc agreed Smart Meters should be removed.
The election is scheduled for Oct. 6.
