Cornwall ON – PC Candidate for SD&G Jim McDonell stopped and talked Hydro Rates and Small business with Mike Bedard and his team at Roy’s Pools in Cornwall Ontario Thursday.
“Small businesses are a source not only of jobs and opportunity, but also the innovation, hard work and risk-taking that are essential to a strong and modern economy. A Tim Hudak
government will be the best partner small business ever had.” –Jim McDonell,Ontario PC candidate
And from Mr. Mike Bedard, owner of Roy’s Pools:
“Roy’s Pools and Spas was delighted and excited to be given the opportunity to receive such a wonderful announcement from the PC Party! We are glad to support anything that will help all small businesses in Cornwall, S.D. & G. and Ontario!
Here is the PC Small Business Plan:
An Ontario PC Government Will Be the Best Partner Small Business Ever Had:We will introduce a Small Business Bill of Rights to recognize that small businesses are the engine of growth, job creation, and prosperity in Ontario. The Bill will give five specific rights to small businesses that will guarantee fair, helpful, and equal treatment from the Ontario government. These are:
- A commitment to red tape reduction. We will appoint a Minister responsible for reducing the regulatory burden by a minimum of 30%, and the entire Cabinet will have its pay docked if it misses important regulatory goals. Special attention will be paid to the burden faced by our farmers and small businesses.
- Choice over mandatory smart meter energy pricing. The smart meters forced on our homes and small businesses – at a cost of more than $1 billion – have become nothing but government-sponsored tax machines. We will let small business owners decide whether the time-of-use pricing system works for them.
- Fast, efficient, customer-friendly service standards for small businesses’ dealings with government. Too often small businesses have to go to multiple ministries to comply with endless paperwork, forms, and directives, and then wait weeks for responses. We will give small businesses more ways to get routine government transactions done by extending office hours and providing more services online. We will also require government ministries, agencies, boards, and commissions to provide written answers to questions from small businesses seeking clarification on how regulations are applied. And these written responses will be honoured, even in the case that the government body providing them errs in its interpretation of the matter in question.
- Greater ability to bid on government contracts. Currently, the Province sets up its bidding process in such a way that makes it virtually impossible for small businesses to compete (for example, bundling several contracts together or requiring a lengthy, convoluted Request for Proposal). We will help level the playing field so small businesses can compete with larger businesses and corporations for government contracts.
- We will make Ontario’s business tax rates competitive by reducing them to 10%. One of Dalton McGuinty’s first acts after getting elected in 2003 was to raise business taxes. We are still feeling the impact of those early tax hikes. We will reduce the basic corporate income tax rate from 11.5% to 10% by 2013.
- We will fix the apprenticeship system. A Tim Hudak government will create more than 200,000 new apprenticeship spaces over four years. We will modernize the apprenticeship system by delegating more responsibility for signing up apprentices to the colleges who will also match apprentices with employers. And we will reduce the ratio of journeymen to apprentices, making it 1-to-1, to put more skilled workers on the job.
We will make Ontario’s labour laws fairer for union members and taxpayers. We will change Ontario’s labour laws to give union members more flexibility and a greater voice. We will give all individuals the right to a secret ballot in certification votes. We will introduce paycheque protection so union members are not forced to pay fees towards political causes they do not support. Unions will be required to be transparent and open with their financial information, just as businesses and charities are.
The Ontario PCs Understand The Importance of Small Business
Ontario PC MPP for York-Simcoe Julia Munro was a crucial part of the development of the Small Business Bill of Rights. Her Private Member’s Bill 152, “An Act to enact a Bill of Rights for small business” helped lay the groundwork for the Small Business Bill of Rights, and included a call for greater access to government contracts to level the playing field for small business, reduction of the regulatory burden, and the right to be treated with courtesy and respect by government counterparts.
- A formal, impossible-to-ignore voice for small businesses in any new legislation or regulation that affects our economy. 94% of Ontario’s businesses have fewer than 19 employees and yet they are often an afterthought when new WSIB or hydro decisions are made. We will require government agencies, boards, and commissions that want to adopt new or modified administrative rules that have an impact on small business owners to submit to the Minister responsible for reducing red tape a Small Business Impact Statement showing the economic impact on those businesses.
ONTARIO VOTES
OCTOBER 6th, 2011
Ontario today
In 2006, the Ontario government said that it had a vision for its support of Ontarians living with a developmental disability.
“The fundamental vision is to support people to live as independently as possible in the community and to support the full inclusion of Ontarians with disabilities in all aspects of society.”
In March 2010, Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the rights of disabled people. It recognizes:
“the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and to taking effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community.”
It continues by stating:
“Persons with disabilities have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
• We know the system is grossly underfunded and inefficient
• We know because the waiting list are growing at an alarming rate for both children and adults
• We know families are in crisis
• We know families live in fear of what the future holds for their family member
• We know families are going bankrupt taking care of their disabled children
• We are told there is no money
• We are told we are on a waiting list where your name never comes up
• We are told that developmental services are VOLUNTARY not MANDATORY like Education and Health, in other words we do not have the right to receive support and services
QUESTION
Is the government of Ontario only willing to support people with developmental disabilities in principle?
The never ending waitlist is only a symptom. The real problem is that we do not have the right to receive supports and services.
The solution is for people with developmental disabilities to be protected by law and have the right to receive the supports and services they so desperately need.
ONTARIO VOTES
DID YOU KNOW?
• Did you know that over 80,000 Ontarians live with a developmental disability?
• Did you know that in fact over 4 million Ontarians would support a law that protects the rights of people with developmental disabilities to receive supports and services for them to be fully integrated in their community?
• Did you know that in Ontario over 23,000 people are languishing on waiting lists?
• Did you know that over 12,000 people are waiting for support to live in a decent home?
• Did you know that 7,000 families are on a waiting list for Special Services at Home (SSAH)? The current funding is spread so thin that the average allocation to families is $4200 a year—that translates into 4 hours of respite a week!
• Did you know that over 4,000 people are on a waiting list for PASSPORT funding? This funding is vital to help those who need support to participate in their community once they finish high school!
• Did you know that most families have stopped applying to those two programs because the waitlist is so long and they have given up hope?
• Did you know that over 1,450 parents over the age of 70 are still providing care for their adult child or family member, AND of those parents,
80% are between 70-79 years old,
17% are between 80-89 years old,
3% are over the age of 90 years old?
• Did you know that except for medical needs, the supports and services for people with developmental disabilities are not covered by OHIP?
• Did you know that in Ontario you do not need any formal training to work with people with developmental disabilities, that you only learn on the job?
• Did you know that teachers in Ontario need to be formally trained before they can teach students? They do not learn on the job.
• Did you know that Ontario doctors, physiotherapists, nurses need to have formal training before they are allowed to interact with patients? They do not learn on the job!
• Did you know that in Germany and many other countries in the developed world, people with developmental disabilities have legislation that entitles them to receive the supports, services and treatment they need?
• Did you know that Germany is one of the world leaders in setting the standards in providing the supports and services for both adults and children who have developmental disabilities?
• Did you know that although our Government claims it cannot afford it, Germany has comparable GDP, inflation rate, employment rate and standard of living as Canada?
QUESTION
WHY THEN ARE WE STILL WAITING?
We need to be protected by law. We need to have legislation that will give us the right to receive supports and services.
ONTARIO VOTES
REAL IMPACT ON BEING ON A WAITLIST
Story #1
An 80 year old widow has a heart attack. She is no longer able to care of her 42 year old son. The government places him in an Alzheimer unit in a nursing home. He does not have Alzheimer’s, he has Down’s Syndrome. He becomes agitated and stops eating. The mother begs for a transfer. He is on the waitlist.
They live in Ontario.
Story #2
A 21 year old student graduated from high school. Her family is on a waitlist for both a funded day program and funding to allow them to hire a worker to help her in a job, to help her volunteer, to help her participate in her community. In high school, she successfully participated in co-op jobs, packing groceries, folding laundry in a gym, and sorting cutlery in a nursing home. She loved her jobs.
Months later following her graduation, she still sits in front of the living room window waiting for the school bus to pick her up. She is on the waitlist.
They live in Ontario.
STORY #3
A 21 year old son has severe Autism. He is a full grown man who requires constant supervision, because he also has a disorder called PICA which compels him to eat inedible objects. It took more than 10 years to get a placement. The exhausted mother is blunt in her assessment of the current waitlist. Unless somebody dies you don’t get a bed.
They live in Ontario.
STORY #4
A mother provides total care for her nine year old son. He suffers from Autism and has violent seizures. He is non verbal. He has to be fed and wears diapers. Due to a lack of government funding, they can only get one day of respite every two weeks. There is no help and the group homes are full. The mother is terrified of what is going to happen to her son when she is gone.
They live in Ontario.
STORY #5
A widow has an adult son who has Down’s Syndrome. Because he needs 24 hour supervision, she can only work from home. Her job pays minimum wage and has no benefits.
She get a few hours of respite from some funding she receives from the government to get some work done. She sums it up by saying that adults with developmental disabilities need proper housing and programs to attend if they cannot work. Convicts get more preferential treatment than our children.
They live in Ontario.
STORY #6
Six years ago, with her health failing, a 51 year old mother made the painful decision to ask that her son be placed in a home.
Her 26 year old son has a mild developmental disability and autism, a condition characterized by abnormalities in social interaction and communication as well as severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. He participates in a day program and loves it.
The mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she underwent extensive chemotherapy. She has had two heart attacks and has had surgeries to unblock arteries.
She wants him to be settled and happy. All transitions are huge for people with Autism. She wants to be the one to help him transition.
Although his case was red flagged for immediate attention 3 years ago, he is still on a waitlist. She was told that if she dies they will find a place for him.
They live in Ontario.
The waitlist is only a symptom. The real problem is that we do not have the right to receive supports and services.
The solution is for people with developmental disabilities to be protected by law and have the right to receive the supports and services they need.
Thank you for your time and efforts.