Latest / Kvetch & Release / MPP Anthony Leardi discusses Ontario energy expansion & protecting agricultural land

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MPP Anthony Leardi discusses Ontario energy expansion & protecting agricultural land · Kvetch & Release

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, nothing like a little bit of depeche Mode to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: start things off. Hope you're all doing well. John Lydkey
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: here on AM eight hundred CKLW. It is nine oh six,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: filling in for Dan McDonald and we're going to keep
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the new format that I've launched here for Dan's show
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: continuing today, bringing on a in touch Politico to dive
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: into one story headfirst, get into the weeds and the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: thick of it, and then we open up the phone
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: lines for you to call or text in with some
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of your comments or questions or whatever comes to mind.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Joining me in studio right now is the one the
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  Speaker 1: only The Member of Provincial Parliament for Essex, Anthony Leelarady,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: joins me. How you doing.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Good morning, John, Thanks for inviting me to be here today.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I'm great to be.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Here, glad to have you here. So this is a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: pretty big story that we saw here breaking yesterday. CTV
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: reported on this through the Canadian Press. Some solar arms
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: will be on prime agricultural land in the province as
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Ontario expands energy production to meet demand in the coming decades.
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  Speaker 1: This is according to our new Energy Minister, Steven lecche.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: We are looking in the province to add five thousand
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: megawatts of energy to the grid, and the independent Electricity
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: System Operator has been directed to secure technology agnostic energy resources,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: meaning a mix of natural gas, hydro electric, renewables, nuclear
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and biomass energy sources. The province says that they are
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: making efforts to protect key agricultural areas in the process
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  Speaker 1: and as such, ground mounted solar panels are going to
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  Speaker 1: be prohibited on prime agricultural farmland, said Lecha, who pledged
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that the province in this government would quote never misuse
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: those lands, saying that farmers need more energy than ever before.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And of course, as we're looking to in a expanding
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: ev sector right now with new battery plants that are online,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and the idea of putting one or two electric vehicles
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  Speaker 1: in everybody's driveways as well as a chicken in a pot,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I guess is how it goes now these days, there
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: is a need for more electricity. You can't just go
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: to the gas station and fill up your car with gas.
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  Speaker 1: If it's an electric vehicle, you've got to plug it
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  Speaker 1: in and that power has to come from somewhere. So
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  Speaker 1: MPP Leeardy, again, thank you so much for joining me
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  Speaker 1: in the studio. Just first, right off the bat, why
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: don't we get your take on this.
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  Speaker 2: So this is all part of keeping energy affordable and
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: powering the growth in Ontario. So we have an enormous
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: demand for energy in Ontario because of course, our automotive
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: sector is taking off with billions of dollars of investment
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  Speaker 2: here in the province of Ontario. That's great news for
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: all of us in Ontario and especially in this area
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  Speaker 2: where we know and understand the automotive industry. So there
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: is a huge demand for power out there and it's
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: only going to keep keep growing. So we got to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: meet this demand. We've got to make sure that we
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  Speaker 2: deliver the power that is being demanded because we want
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  Speaker 2: to keep energy affordable, affordable for everybody in Ontario. We
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  Speaker 2: don't want to have a situation where there's a huge
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  Speaker 2: demand of power and power is scarce, because we know
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: that's going to drive up the cost. What we want
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  Speaker 2: to do is we want to make sure that there's
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  Speaker 2: lots of power available so that all of the people
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  Speaker 2: who are demanding power get power that is clean, reliable
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: and affordable. So that's what this plan is all about.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: So I can already hear the keyboards, frantically typing away
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  Speaker 1: at outlets like the Narwhal or the Toronto Star, saying,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: why a focus on natural gas? We should just be
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: going renewable. This government is abandoning any pledges or commitments
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: towards a clean environment. You don't care about climate change.
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  Speaker 1: Why would you be doubling down on dangerous hydrocarbons.
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  Speaker 2: What would you response to me to that, Well, renewables
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  Speaker 2: only produce two percent of Ontario's energy demand, which means
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: we need to get the ninety eight percent somewhere else.
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  Speaker 2: So we have a clean grid here in the province
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  Speaker 2: of Ontario. Most of our energy, that's approximately sixty percent,
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  Speaker 2: is derived from nuclear generation. Now it's interesting that there
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: are members of the NDP are actually against nuclear generation.
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  Speaker 2: So I would challenge them and I would say, well,
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  Speaker 2: where do you think we're going to get sixty percent
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  Speaker 2: of our energy if you're against nuclear? So Ontario depends
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  Speaker 2: on nuclear generation for sixty percent of its energy. Approximately
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: another thirty percent is generated through clean hydro power, leaving
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  Speaker 2: the remainder a mix of others. So actually, gas generation
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  Speaker 2: is actually a very small amount of energy generation in
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  Speaker 2: the province of Ontario, but it's a necessary part because
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  Speaker 2: there are clear spikes in demand for energy. So for
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  Speaker 2: example yesterday when we were yesterday or the day before
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: when the temperature went up to thirty degrees celsius and
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: everybody turned on their air conditioners at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: that creates a spike in the demand for energy. Not
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: address that spike through nuclear generation or hydro generation or
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  Speaker 2: through wind power, because you can't flick a switch and
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  Speaker 2: make those things work. But what you can do is
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  Speaker 2: you can flick a switch on a gas plant and
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: immediately meet the demand for peak energy. So that's why
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  Speaker 2: gas is a necessary part of our energy mix. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: we know the Liberals are opposed to all gas generation.
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  Speaker 2: That in my view is utterly unrealistic. You cannot meet
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  Speaker 2: peak demand without flicking a switch. You have to flick
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  Speaker 2: a switch, and in order to do that you have
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  Speaker 2: to rely on gas generation. So we in the government
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: in doug Ford government where energy agnostic. We'd like to
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  Speaker 2: say that we like a clean grid, a reliable grid,
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  Speaker 2: and an affordable grid, and if it means that we
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  Speaker 2: need to mix a little bit in order to get
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  Speaker 2: what we need, then that's what we're going to do
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  Speaker 2: and keep costs Low.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I like how you diplomatically said that the Liberals are
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: against new gas generation. You could have said they're against
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to the tune of what was it two billion dollars?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I believe, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think it was two hundred and sixty million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money.
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  Speaker 1: That was a big deal a couple years ago. It
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  Speaker 1: certainly was kind of led to the fall of that
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  Speaker 1: government if I believe correctly.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a lot of reasons there, John
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  Speaker 2: that might fill up a whole new show.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, well, we're not going to go into that, but
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  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, it does speak to the fact that
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: we need electricity and I don't know, I look to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: nuclear and it works. We rely on it here. I
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  Speaker 1: don't understand the opposition to it unless it's just playing
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: bad faith politics and saying like, oh no, we're gonna
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: have a nuclear meltdown. But it's like a lot of
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  Speaker 1: that stuff has been addressed as I understand it over
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  Speaker 1: the past decades.
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  Speaker 2: Canada is a world leader in safe, clean nuclear generation.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, we are so successful this at this in
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  Speaker 2: the province of Ontario that we have entered into agreements
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  Speaker 2: with other countries, most notably Poland, for the procurement and
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  Speaker 2: delivery of nuclear technology. I think that this is really
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  Speaker 2: a great thing for the Province of Ontario that we
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  Speaker 2: lead the world in nuclear technology, and that's a good thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good thing for everybody in Ontario because that
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  Speaker 2: is going to give us the energy that we need
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  Speaker 2: to power our growth. We have incredible growth here in Ontario,
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  Speaker 2: especially in the automotive industry. We have now six world
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  Speaker 2: class automotive suppliers and builders here in the Province of Ontario.
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  Speaker 2: That is unheard of in any other jurisdiction in the world.
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  Speaker 2: We have six, and I would dare say we might
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  Speaker 2: get more. They need energy, and this is all about
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  Speaker 2: creating jobs. We get the jobs here in Ontario because
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: we landed the automotive investments. We landed the automotive investments
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  Speaker 2: in part because those investors know that we can generate clean,
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  Speaker 2: reliable and affordable energy and that's why our economy is
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  Speaker 2: doing so well.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny that you bring up that there
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  Speaker 1: could be more investments in the auto industry here in Ontario.
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  Speaker 1: There has been some negative conversations about the EV sector
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  Speaker 1: over the past little while, with companies shelving certain plans
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  Speaker 1: or putting them on the back burner. But I had
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  Speaker 1: completely forgotten about a year ago the conversations with the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Economic Development Minister of vic Fidelli. Remember him saying, oh, no,
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  Speaker 1: we still have maybe three or four things up our sleeve.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: You'll be hearing more about it. And it's been a year,
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  Speaker 1: so I guess maybe we just have to still wait
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  Speaker 1: and see on some of those.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I have a lot of faith in
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  Speaker 2: Minister Fidelli's ability to bring investment to the Province of Ontario.
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  Speaker 2: If you'll remember, John, think back just six years ago,
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  Speaker 2: six years ago, Just think back six years ago. If
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  Speaker 2: you had come if you'd had somebody on your show
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  Speaker 2: and came here and said, we're going to land forty
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  Speaker 2: three billion dollars worth of automotive investment in the province
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  Speaker 2: of Ontario, and they told you this six years ago,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I dare say, John, you would have laughed in their face.
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  Speaker 2: You would have laughed in their face. You would have said,
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  Speaker 2: there is no way that Ontario is going to land
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: forty three billion dollars worth of automotive investment. And here
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  Speaker 2: we are six years later, and that's exactly what we've done.
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  Speaker 2: We've done that because of the leadership of Doug Ford
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  Speaker 2: and because he's able to reach out across all kinds
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  Speaker 2: of political lines and party lines and government lines and say, hey,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to work with you. We're going to make
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  Speaker 2: this happen, and we're going to make it happen in Ontario.
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  Speaker 2: And I think, well, the proof is in the putting.
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  Speaker 1: I remember asking him, Hey, are you going to go
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  Speaker 1: and introduce any ev subsidies for the consumer to be
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: able to purchase a car and he went, no, I'm
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: going to go and lwer companies to get here so
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  Speaker 1: we can get great jobs, so people can go and
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  Speaker 1: buy a car.
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  Speaker 2: That's correct, And here we are.
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  Speaker 1: It's a different Ontario, i suppose today than it was
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. That's for sure. We're going
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to take a quick break right now. It's nine to sixteen.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: When we get back on the other side, I want
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  Speaker 1: to talk more about this file. When it comes to electricity,
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  Speaker 1: the province is going to be handing municipalities the power
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: to decide if they want particular energy projects. Looking forward
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to speaking with our MPP for Essex, Anthony Leardy about
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: that and more. If you've got a question for him,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: you can text us right now five one nine seven
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: nine to two CKLW. We'll get through those a bit
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: later on John Lydkey here on AM eight hundred KLW.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: We're back right after this. Hey, we're back a little
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: bit of a vichy. I guess to come in from
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the commercial break there. These are the days. Indeed, we've
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: got SXMPP Anthony Le already here in the studio. We're
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: talking about new energy policies for the province energy expansion.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: We know that we need more energy. We've got agricultural
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  Speaker 1: lands that need to be protected as well, and so
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  Speaker 1: the province has put new policies into place for that.
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  Speaker 1: But one thing I find really interesting is that the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: province is now handing power to municipalities to decide if
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: they want particular energy projects. Municipalities creatures of the province.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Typically we don't see powers being extended from Queen's Park
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: down the four to one or up the four to
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  Speaker 1: one towards any of our municipalities. But in this case,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the province is willing to usurp a bit of its
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: own power to empower local communities. And I wonder why
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the hell you would do that. It just doesn't make
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: any sense to me for not just your government, but
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: for any government at Queen's Park to go and do
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: something like this.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: So, John, if you remember, under the previous Liberal government,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: they took away any authority or any decision making from
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: the municipalities regarding energy production. So, for example, right here
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: in Essex County, if you drive down the four oh
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: one through Lakeshore, you'll see that there are lots of
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: wind turbines in Lakeshore. Well, at the time, the town
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: of Lakeshore was not in favor of putting up those
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: wind turbines. They were opposed through the wind turbines. They
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: didn't want to have them. But the Liberal government at
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the time imposed the wind turbines on the municipality of Lakeshore.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: They exist today because the government back then said to
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: the municipalities, you don't have the right to prevent this
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: from happening. Our government is taking a different approach. We
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: are telling the municipalities you have the right to decide
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: whether or not this happens. You have the right to
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: either authorize it or decline it. We think that's an
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: important recognition of the function that municipalities have in this area,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and we are happy to do that because I think
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: it's right that municipalities should have that authority.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Listen, it makes sense to me. I can understand why
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the prior government did the imposition to try to spur
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a new industry overnight, but it caused a lot of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: backlash and consternation. And who knows, maybe they'd still be
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: around today if they didn't go and act so using
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: their magic wand as much as they did to put
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: it into a different parlance. So we have a comment
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: here from our Windsor West MPP that I'd like for
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you to respond to, if that's fine, She writes to me,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I asked her. I said, look, you're coming on the show.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get her take on this. Lisa Gretzky.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: She said, the minister's comments about respecting farmers and the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: government's actions or contradictory when you look at the green
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: belt grab scandal and the ongoing OURCMP investigation, as well
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: as what is currently happening in Wilmot where farmers are
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: being told that they can either sell their land or
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: risk expropriation. W She goes on to say the government
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: has directed the region of Waterloo to assembly large parcel
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of land that could be used for industrial purposes, but
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: is blaming the region and saying that it's not our fault.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: At the province. Fields of corn have been basically bulldozed over,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and farmers outside the outline boundaries of the current identified
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: land are now afraid to prelant crops or invest in
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: their farm businesses because the boundaries could change and they
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: could lose everything, and it's putting our food security and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: clean water supply at risk. So a few different components there,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: but I'll just ask you what your response is to
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: having heard that from our member of Provincial Parliament for
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Windsor West.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: We just spoke about how the previous Liberal government imposed
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: these energy projects on municipalities, and I'll remind everybody that
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the NDP supported that Liberal government when they did that.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: There is a fine example of this right from my area.
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  Speaker 2: I'm from Anderden Township and at the corner of Middle
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Side Road and Second Concession of Anderden Township. When I
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: was growing up, there used to be a farm and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: that farm used to produce corn and wheat and soybeans,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: and today that farm no longer exists. Today, that farm
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: or what used to be a farm is now a
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: solar installation. And what they did is they put solar
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: panels up on hundreds of acres of agricultural land, and
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: in order to erect those solar installations, they poured in
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: tons and tons of concrete. So, of course that agricultural
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: land is no longer agricultural land, and that was a
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: result of the liberal policies of the day supported by
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the NDP. Now our government is going to take a
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: totally different approach. There is going to be an absolute
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: prohibition on any solar projects in what we call prime
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: agricultural farmland, which is what exactly what the corner of
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: middle Side Road and second concession of Anderden Township was.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So that's never going to happen under our government. And
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: in addition to that, if you propose to put up
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: an energy project on any kind of agricultural land, it's
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: going to prime agricultural land. It's going to require what
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: we call an agricultural assessment, which means you have to
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: go through a process to determine whether or not there
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: is an alternative means to deliver the energy. So our
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: government is taking very solid steps, realistic steps to prevent
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the erosion of agricultural land, and that is in stark
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: contrast to the previous liberal government which essentially set aside
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: all those protections and proceeded the way it did.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: You know, again, I always say I'm so glad I'm
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: not an electric official because these decisions and having to
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: play the game that you guys play is just it
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: doesn't it looks like a fun game. Excuse me. Don't
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: get me wrong. I like watching VP, I like watching
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: West Wing. Somewhere in between is probably the reality of
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: what things actually are like. But you know, you look
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: on face value and go, okay, so we're going to
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: put solar panels up over land.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: That just doesn't make sense, makes no sense.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: There are places to put up solar panels.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: On the tops of barns, for example.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense. Maybe cover a road with solar
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: panels so you could have like a covered pathway as
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you drive, and then if it rains, well, the solar
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: panel's not working of it rains, let's be honest. But
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that's aside from the point it could serve as a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: double purpose. But covering up farmland doesn't make much sense.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: This seems like a pretty practical policy. How often do
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: you guys come across like practical policies in government rather
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: than like, you know, things that you're trying to just achieve.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I like to think that our government under Doug
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Ford has introduced a lot of practical softball.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I laid that one off for you don't know, oh gosh.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: But I think that this one is really a really
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: good one. You know, we all recognize the importance of
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: agricultural land, and I mentioned the fact that you have
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to do an agricultural impact assessment if you're trying to
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: do anything on prime agricultural land. But there are also
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: energy producing opportunities really to farm operations. So for example,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: biomass right, biomass is the conversion of animal waste to energy,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: and if you're going to do a biomass project, you
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: probably need to put that near the source of the biomass,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: so you're going to have to go through an agricultural
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: impact assessment. But that's one potential project that has huge
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: upside benefits both for farmers and for energy producers. But
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: of course, you know, we have the policy in place
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: to protect agricultural land, and that is in addition to
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the various other incentives that we are offering to make
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: sure that people do not develop on prime agricultural land.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Biomass is a much more diplomatic term to use than
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: other terms that you could use for what the product
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: actually is. But hey, I mean, listen, why not use
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: it for purposes like electricity generation? If better than just
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: filling up the back of a pickup truck and using
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: it to film back the future with a beeftan going
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: right under that horse manure. But hey, we're gonna take
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: a quick break right now. It is nine twenty seven.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: When we get back on the other side, we've got
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the nine thirty information update. Then we're gonna go to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: questions from you for our Member of Provincial Parliament for Essex.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: So if you've got a question, text US five one
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: nine seven nine to two CKLW or you can call
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: in five one nine seven nine two two five five nine.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I see that we've already got some texts that are
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: coming in right now, one about a potential early election maybe,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: so we'll find out what the MPP has to say
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: about that. John Lidkey here on ami ee hundred CLW.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: We're back right after this. Nay, we're back here amid
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: hundred CKLW joined in studio by our Member of Provincial
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Parliament for Essex, Anthony Leardi. Thanks for good joining us here.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: It's my pleasure, really appreciate it.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: So we're switching into our Q and A format. If
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: people have questions, you can call or text us five
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: one nine seven nine to two ckl W. First question
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: came in early in the show, so one's very eager
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to get this out right off the bat. Hi John
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: ask him if we are going to have an early election.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: That's a great question if you ask the leader of
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the NDP, she is actually demanding one. You'll see on
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: the NDP provincial website that the Leader of the NDP
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: is quoted as saying bring it on, bring it on.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: So she clearly wants an early election. That decision will
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: be made by Premier Doug Ford. And as we talk today,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether or not we're going to have
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: an early election or a late election or election on time.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: That's a decision to be made by the Premier. But
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: certainly the leader of the NDP is asking for an
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: early election. And so you know, all I can say
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: to that is be careful what you ask for. You know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: there seems to be a hunger for There seems to
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: be a hunger for people to go to the polls.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say a hunger for change, because
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: obviously among your constituents they're not looking to vote you
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: guys out. Everyone seems to be emboldened other than I
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: don't know the Liberal Party right now, but they've got
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of their own stuff to figure out as
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: it stands. So we're looking at the NDP and the Conservatives.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: I look to the moves that you've been making at
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: the government level, and it's a very populist, people forward
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: government in terms of some of the policies that you've
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: been introducing. I think to alcohol expansion, for example, that's
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: coming into effect next.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Thursday, is a really good example. I don't see how
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: you could mount a campaign effectively against some of those policies,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: which is I guess maybe why if you could respond
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to this. They seem to be going more existential sometimes
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: with their complaints about your government.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Well, when you say they are existentially, you're referring to
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: the NDP. I think that's an appropriate description. Doug Ford
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: is a very practical individual. He implements practical strategies. If
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: you ask me my opinion, I find that the NDP.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: You use the word existent, I use them. I use
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the word ideological. I find the NDP in the Province
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: of Ontario to be hugely ideological, stuck on ideology on
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: almost every single policy. That's their that's their take. They
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: have the right to do that. I don't deprive them
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: of that right. But that's not our style in government.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Our style in the PC Party is to be very
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: practical about what we do and we fulfill our promises.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: That promise that you just mentioned of expanding alcohol sales
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: to make them more convenient, that was a promise that
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: was made in twenty eighteen. Took a while to implement
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: that promise, but there was a promise made and a
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: promise kept, and we intend to keep doing that.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: There were there are a few things that got in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the way of governing priorities between twenty eighteen to twenty twenty.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Like a pandemic for all, just a little.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: One that popped up there. Yeah, okay, if you got
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: a question, five one nine seven nine two c KLW
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: is number to call or to text to ask a
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: question to MVP Anthony Leardi for Essex. Should municipalities be
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: able to stop greenhouses from being built, just like your
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: government is saying that they can be able to say
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: yes or no to new energy projects.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: So greenhouses produce a lot of food in the Province
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: of Ontario. In fact, in the Leamington area, if you
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: ate a tomato in the Province of Ontario, there's an
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: eighty percent chance that tomato or tomato product came from
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: the Leamington area. It's a huge job creator. It's very
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: valuable to the contribution not only of our Ontario economy,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: but also to our export economy. We now know that
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Ontario food exports have hit twenty five billion dollars a year.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: It is a huge industry in the Province of Ontario.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we don't notice it, but it is huge for
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: the Province of Ontario, and it's absolutely necessary for us
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: to continue building this economy and building it in the
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: agricultural sector. Municipalities have levers at their disposal to control
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: the expansion and construction of greenhouses. They can do that
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: through by law. They cannot put an absolute prohibition on greenhouses,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: and I don't think any municipality wants to do that.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I think they want responsible greenhouse development in recognition of
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: the jobs that they create and in recognition of the
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: awesome economic generation power of the greenhouse industry. So that's
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: a good industry for us to have, especially in this area.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Like I said that we export twenty five billion dollars
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: worth with a food on an annual basis, and we
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: don't want to interrupt that. But municipalities have levers at
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: their disposal to control and develop proper development of greenhouses
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: if they choose to do so.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we talk often about how Leamington is the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: tomato capital of Canada. It's always just been like, you know,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: an offhand re mark that I've heard tithing to be
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: proud of it. Of course, you know, I love going
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to the big tomato that exists, and it's a great
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: point of pride. I've never once actually heard it quantified.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So eighty percent chance if I'm eating a tomato, and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you know, you just you pick up a tomato off
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the counter and you bite into it, as we all
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: do here a tomato or a tomato product or tomato product,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: eighty percent chance, yeah, eighty percent chance anywhere in the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: province of Ontario. Because because those are the facts In fact,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: even if you travel around North America as I have done,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you can buy Kingsville products as far south as South
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Carolina and as far south as Florida. You can buy
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Kingsville tomato products as far east as Quebec City. These
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: are amazing products. They're exported everywhere. We are absolutely crushing
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: it in this area of the economy, and we should
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: continue to do so. That is part of what makes
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Essex County a powerhouse, and we should not give that up.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Keep eating Essex to agricultural products. Here's one, Hey, Anthony,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I was at the AMO conference, but time ran out.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I wasn't able to ask my question. With all the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: hard work invested in the Building Homes Faster Bill, with
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the growing plight of homelessness affecting so many newer communities,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: when will the same amount of effort be spent on
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: addressing homelessness as the building Homes Faster Bill.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: So that's an excellent concern that bring up, because you know,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: in this era that we're living in today, we all
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: recognize that it's becoming more difficult for people, especially young people,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to get into a home. It used to be that
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: when you started out, you could you know put down
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: a down payment and get yourself a nice starter home
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: and then work from there. That's becoming increasingly more difficult,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: and our government is addressing this because what we think
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: is that it's important to get the supply of homes
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: increased dramatically. One thing that's important to note is that
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: we have had an increase in population in the province
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: of Ontario of a million people just in the last
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: two years. That is an incredible and unprecedented growth in population,
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: and it's extremely difficult to address affordability of housing when
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: you have an increase, instantaneous increase of a million people
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: over two years. But this government is going to address
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: that in several ways. First of all, I think the
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: number one thing that the federal government could do to
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: help us out is to get rid of the carbon tax.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: The carbon tax is a crushing tax. It's raising the
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: cost of everything, including home ownership. We have to get
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: rid of the carbon tax. That's step number one. Another
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: thing that you'll be seeing on the part of the
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: provincial government, and that is different from the federal government,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: is that we are going to be altering the provincial
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: policy statement with regard to land development. We're going to
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: be increasing intensification along transportation corridors to make it easy
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: here for builders to build condominiums and apartment buildings along
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: transportation corridors. That's not so applicable in Essex County because
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: we're more of a rural, small town area. But for
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: areas that are experiencing exponential growth the kind of growth
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: that I just described Brampton Peel Region and the list
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: goes on, they need lots of building and to build
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: it fast. So that's what we're going to be doing
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: in those areas and start addressing the supply side of housing,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: because we need to increase supply in order to get
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: it back into the range of people being able to
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: afford it well.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: More people in more homes means more property tax, means
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: more ability to pay for services like addressing homelessness and
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: people on the streets. Is also, of course the fact
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that for every person that moves out of an apartment
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: into a new home, that apartment has now come on
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: to the market, which can help to address the situation
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: that we have as a whole. There's no one silver
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: bullet to addressing the housing crisis that we're in right now,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't help that you know, we've got a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: million temporary foreign workers here, planning to add five hundred
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: thousand new immigrants a year to the country. I remember
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: last year there was a story where Stats Canada came
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: out and they went, oh, there's an extra million people
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: here that we didn't count. Ministry of Housing, didn't talk
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: with the education departments, and there are a million of
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you guys here that should have left and you just didn't.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And I hear stories like that and just go and
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: did you ever address like maybe we should build one
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: home one to start things out, and like, no, that
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't the prescription at the outset of this. And again
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that's not entirely one government's choices here. The Feds opened
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: up streams, the province supplies for temporary foreign workers, and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: somewhere in between. There's enough blame that I think can
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: be thrown at everyone. But at the end of the day,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: it is the FEDS who, you know, allowed for the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: system to open. And I don't blame governments for taking
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: advantage of proms and policies that are there to be used.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: It's the federal governments need to address the broader issues.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: That I was touching on that just in a discussion
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: yesterday where there's actually no process of following up on
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: people's stay visas in this country. The federal government has
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: not enacted a system whereby it goes after people whose
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: visas have expired. So if you enter the country on
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: a visa and it says you have to leave by
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: a certain date and you violate that date, there's no
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: follow up. So it becomes a situation whereby there are
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: literally hundreds of thousands of people, or could be because
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: there's no means of tracking it right now, there could
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: be hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario right now
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: who are not supposed to be here because their visas
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: have expired, and that is an issue that has to
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: be addressed by the federal government. We would support them
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: if they addressed that. So I encourage them to do so.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: If I could make a suggestion call and if they
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: answer the phone, tell them to you know, reapply or
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: follow the rules. I don't know. Sometimes I think that
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: my simple policy prescriptions might work, but then other people
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: show up and they tell me no, John, there's actual
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: policies and procedures and regulations we have to follow. You know,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: you were a crown you know all about that side
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: of things.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: That's correct. I used to be a federal prosecutor on
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: a part time basis in Leamington. You can be a
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: part time crown Yeah, it's Leamington was a smaller courthouse,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: and so the Prosecution Service hires prosecutors to do work
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: in various smaller centers. I don't think that exists anymore
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: because because of the changes that took place during COVID.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: But at the time I was a common Actually it's
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: a very common thing.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Do you like it?
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Well? I did like it at the time, and now
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: I like being an MPP much more.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, hey, that's fair. I want to thank you
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: so much for your time and for joining me in
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the studio today.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Anthony, thank you, John. It's been a pleasure.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Anthony Lee already is our member of Provincial Parliament for Essex.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: If you've got any comments about this, you can text
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: them in and you and I can continue this conversation
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: five one nine seven nine two CKLW. Thank you again
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: for your time. We're gonna take a quick break, but
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: we'll be back right after this