{"id":29963,"date":"2021-09-16T19:25:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T23:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29963"},"modified":"2021-09-23T18:01:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T22:01:08","slug":"candidates-spar-over-covid-spending-in-chamber-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/candidates-spar-over-covid-spending-in-chamber-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates spar over COVID spending in Chamber debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora residents had a chance to see their candidates on both sides of the riding border field questions and challenge each other in an all-candidates debate hosted virtually by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the exception of the Conservative candidates \u2013 Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill incumbent Conservative candidate Leona Alleslev said she was unable to fit the debate in her schedule but attended a similar event the following evening hosted by the Richmond Hill Board of Trade \u2013 individuals who have stepped up to be on the ballot next Monday, September 20, shared views and volleys for nearly two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the event was hosted by the Chamber, many of the questions were posed to candidates through a business lens, including how each party\u2019s platform will address the national deficit and the how the deficit impacts local businesses and business owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First to tackle the issue was People\u2019s Party of Canada candidate Anthony Siskos (Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill) who said that Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, as Prime Minister, has created a deficit that has ballooned beyond any of his predecessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to move forward responsibly because that is why housing is so expensive, because the Canadian dollar has been debased,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, a house is $1 million \u2013 not for our parents though. The Canadian Dollar needs to be restored. We need to really hone in on what it means to pay down this deficit. We as the PPC need to hold taxes as it is. Moving forward, our first mandate will be to lower taxes \u2013 for everyone, for business, for income. It is insulting to go out and say this administration hasn\u2019t been completely reckless with our money that we have earned collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Liberal candidates would go on to challenge this idea of \u201crecklessness\u201d, next up to speak was Newmarket-Aurora independent candidate Dorian Baxter who said tackling the deficit would be his first priority if elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a situation whereby our children\u2019s children and their children are going to be enslaved,\u201d said Baxter. \u201cThe time has come for all of us to stand on guard for this country of ours financially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libertarian candidate Serge Korovitsyn (Aurora-Oak Ridges- Richmond Hill) said he was for small government and said a way to lower the debt would be to \u201cfire 90 per cent of the government ministries and government offices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been, as a country, creating more ministries, more government employees and everything can be run by the private sector,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce we do that, we have to stop our government babysitting everyone and getting into the lives of the citizens of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Libertarian candidate, Liberal candidate Leah Taylor Roy (Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill) took the PPC candidate\u2019s claims head-on, stating the incumbent government tackled \u201cthe largest economic crisis\u201d to face the country since the Great Depression and \u201chad Canadians\u2019 backs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went into debt for Canadians who couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d she said. \u201cYou were criticizing this \u2013 would you have let people go hungry? Would you have let all these small businesses fail? We had to do this. We did the right thing by taking this on. The money wasn\u2019t squandered. The money was spent and we already see our economy starting to come back, our jobs returning more quickly, because we did keep money in the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Newmarket-Aurora Liberal candidate Tony Van Bynen: \u201cThe hardship our economy has suffered over the last 18 months has never been seen before. A responsible government is one that makes sure we look after our citizens, we look after our businesses\u2026 those that feel we shouldn\u2019t have done anything are only reflecting that they truly do not understand the scale and the scope of this country and the values we stand for. I am not one to turn my back on those values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing out this debate issue were Aurora\u2019s two NDP candidates \u2013 Yvonne Kelly of Newmarket-Aurora and Janice Hagan of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill \u2013 and Newmarket-Aurora Green Party candidate Tim Flemming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly said she agreed with Taylor Roy and Van Bynen, and asked a provocative question of the other party candidates: \u201cI would like to know what people would have done if they had been in power and who they would have let die?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that deficits and debt are also not something that we just arrive at as a result of the pandemic,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of what we haven\u2019t looked at is revenue sources. The NDP have said the weight of this pandemic cannot be borne on the back of those who have been hit hardest. We need to raise revenues and not cut our programs and services. For many years, we have been told by Liberals and Conservatives both that if we hand out tax cuts to corporations that will translate into business investment and good jobs, and that just doesn\u2019t happen. We\u2019re talking about a fiscally responsible approach, which is to bring back the corporate tax rate to pre-2010 levels, raise the top marginal tax levels just over $200,000 by two points, and add a wealth tax in. We also saw corporations in this country become $78 billion richer in the last year and a half since the first lockdown. That is insane and it is not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Hagan: \u201cWe go into debt to get a house, we go into debt to put our kids through university or college, we go into debt to build a better future. I have been hearing for the last 40 \u2013 50 years people telling us that our children will be slaves. It is 50 years later and it is not true. The economy has to keep moving and the best way to do that is a fair tax system. Business used to pay 2\/3 of the taxes and individuals just about 30 years ago paid the other third and now it is like 80-20 in favour of business. It is just outrageous that they come here and get free health care for their workers, free training, all the benefits that they don\u2019t have to pay for, and yet move to another country as quick as they can if they can do it cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flemming agreed that the deficit was \u201con an extremely high rate\u201d before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is our kids and it is our grandkids. That\u2019s why an old guy like me is sitting here very, very concerned. We are on the cusp of a real difficult situation. The Bank of Canada continues to look at their navel because they have to, because we are sitting at a one per cent rate. When that changes, forget the discussion around inflation and housing \u2013 that damages us significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora residents had a chance to see their candidates on both sides of the riding border field questions and challenge each other in an all-candidates debate hosted virtually by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce. With the exception of the Conservative candidates \u2013 Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill incumbent Conservative candidate Leona Alleslev said she was unable to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7Nh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 12:45:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}