NEWS:

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak congratulated Jib Turner on his nomination as the Party’s official candidate for Sault Ste. Marie, and commended him for leaving Dalton McGuinty’s broken LHIN model to stand up for Northern families whose needs have been ignored for too long. Turner resigned from the North East LHIN board of directors today to protest health dollars being diverted from frontline care to pay for bureaucracies. An Ontario PC government will close the LHINs and redirect those dollars to patients.

The three pillars of changebook North, the result of listening to Northern families, are: change to create more jobs in the North; change to make the most of the North’s natural advantages; and change to build stronger communities.

Turner said that charting a new course to Northern jobs must include Northern input. The Ontario PC Party has committed to repealing the Far North Act that was pushed through by the McGuinty government without consulting Northern families and businesses, and chokes off 50 per cent of Northern Ontario from future economic development at a time when Northern families need new jobs and investment.

Turner also noted that the HST and soaring hydro bills have made life unaffordable for many Northern families, and that an Ontario PC Government would provide immediate relief for families and seniors by removing the HST from home hydro and heating bills, and removing the debt retirement charge from home hydro bills.

Further outlining how out of touch the McGuinty Liberals are with the concerns of Northern families, Turner contrasted McGuinty’s statement that crime is not a priority with the Ontario PC commitment to keep Ontario families and children safe by requiring high risk offenders who are released into the community to wear GPS tracking devices.

Turner is an entrepreneur who ran his own retail business for 30 years and is currently president of an industrial and residential development company. As a director of the North Channel Marine Tourism Association, he has promoted Northern economic development, and as a husband and grandfather, he understands the kind of change Northern Ontario families need.

QUOTES:

“The McGuinty Liberals have grown increasingly out of touch with the North, but the hard-working families in Sault Ste. Marie who are struggling to keep up under Dalton McGuinty can count on Jib to deliver change.”
-Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader

“While Dalton McGuinty listens to Southern Ontario special interests to create policies that simply don’t work in the North, only Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Party have been listening to and delivering for Northern Ontario families.”
-Jib Turner, Sault Ste. Marie Ontario PC Candidate

QUICK FACTS:

• To date, $300 million health care dollars have been diverted from frontline care to pay for salaries and administration. An Ontario PC government will close the LHINs and redirect those dollars to patients.
• Dalton McGuinty has presided over the loss of 45,000 northern jobs and the closure of 60 mills.
• To give families additional tax relief and to spur economic growth, a Tim Hudak government will lower income taxes by 5% on the first $75,000 of taxable income. This will put $258 back in the pocket of a taxpayer earning $70,000 each and every year when our tax relief plan is fully implemented.
• A PC government would provide immediate relief for families and seniors facing rising energy. Taken together, these three steps will give a typical Ontario household $275 in immediate relief from rising energy bills:
• Removing the HST from residential hydro bills.
• Removing the HST from residential home heating bills (natural gas and other fuels).
• Removing the Debt Retirement Charge from residential hydro bills.
• Learn more about how the Ontario PC Party will bring change by downloading changebook North at www.changebook.ca/north