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Essex MPP Anthony Leardi - 2024 Ontario Budget reaction · Kvetch & Release

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  It is budget day. We are less than a couple hours until we get
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  to all publicly see what is in the twenty twenty four Ontario budget, what
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  the PC government under Premier Ford has set as its priorities. We've heard a
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  little bit that's been teased already that I'll be getting into in just a little
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  bit with my guest who joins me right now. We're getting our first local
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  This is a preaction to the budget. Joining me is the Member of Provincial
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  Parliament for Essex, Anthony Lee Ardi. How are you doing today, great
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  John, Thank you for having me on. Thank you for joining me so
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  absent. You know, you knowing a bunch of things about the budget that
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  haven't been shared publicly yet, and I know that stuff like that can't be
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  discussed. We can talk about what we've already heard, which is that our
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  Minister of Finance and the Premier have already announced that affordability measure yesterday, the
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  day before the budget was announced, with a five two point seven cent per
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  leader cut to the provincial gas tax being extended until the end of this year.
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  It was set to expire on the thirty first of June. So Happy
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  Canada Day. I suppose from the Province of Ontario. What's your thoughts on
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  that one. Well, that's a great place to start, John, because
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  I can tell you everywhere in the riding of Essex that I go, whether
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  it's an Amersburg or Kingsville or LaSalle or Bell River, people are telling me
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  the same thing. Everywhere. The carbon tax is just killing them. It's
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  taking money out of their pockets and they can't afford the carbon tax, especially
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  when it comes to home heating. If you take a look at your home
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  heating bill, you'll see that twenty eight or twenty nine percent of your bill
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  is carbon tax, and that's just hurting people. So we have, of
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  course, as a caucus, we've asked the Premier, we've asked the finance
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  minister, we need tax relief in the Province of Ontario, and of course
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  they've delivered. We are cutting the gas tax, not just by that five
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  percent that you mess mentioned, but by the total ten cents per leader.
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  We're extending that tax cut and that's going to be a huge help to people
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  who have to drive. And of course, as you know, John,
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  most people in our area have to drive to get to work, to get
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  to the soccer field to get to the arena, and so that's going to
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  be a big help for people, and we can expect that with the new
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  interchange as well, we're going to be seeing more people on the roads in
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  the next coming years. Well that's you know, that's just a fact of
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  life in our area. Right. We don't have rapid transit, public transit,
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  we don't have the go train, we don't have that kind of thing
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  in our area. We rely on our cars, we rely on our trucks,
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  and so when we have a gas tax cut, that helps us in
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  our area, and that's a big help at the end of the day to
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  families in Essex County. Now we also know that there has been an announced
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  one in zero point six billion dollar more to help municipalities build key infrastructure to
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  help support new home construction. This could go towards roads and water lines and
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  infrastructure of the like. This government has obviously been signaling the intention of building
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  a lot more homes. However, at this point, you know, not
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  quite at the targets that would allow them to have met from what the federal
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  government was going to be providing in some relief. So I wonder about you
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  know that disparity. But you're also broadly like what the government is working towards.
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  Well, we're working towards providing some funding for infrastructure so that our home
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  builders can actually build the homes that people want. The problem is we don't
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  have enough supply. The lack of supply is driving up prices. And the
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  reason why we don't have enough supply, or part of the reason at least,
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  is because we don't have enough infrastructure like water treatment plants, water lines,
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  sewer lines and the like. Now, you know what our goal is
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  not to build hundreds of homes. Our goal is to build one point five
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  million homes over the next ten years. That's a big goal, and we
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  want to help our home builders get there. Want to restore the dream of
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  home ownership to all of the young people in the province Ontario. And part
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  of the reason I think we need to get this infrastructure in the ground is
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  so that we can get homes built. Because that's another thing that's very important
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  and what I've heard in my riding certainly almost every single day, is the
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  fibility of homes and whether we're going to have enough homes for the people who
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  want them. So we need to build those homes, and for homes,
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  we need infrastructure, and keeping with this theme of you know, the infrastructure
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  of roads specifically, it seems like there's a theme in this budget. Quite
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  frankly, we've also heard of some changes to auto insurance announced, and the
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  proposals that we're hearing are that it's going to allow for customers consumers to increase
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  what the industry calls optionality for their plans, allowing drivers more leeway to pick
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  and choose their coverage plan, according to one source here in a CBC story.
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  So clearly it seems like this affordability theme, especially as it relates to
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  you being in a vehicle and driving around, is a big theme here.
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  Yeah, yeah, I mean absolutely, you've hit the nail right on the
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  head again. In our region, In our area, we rely on our
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  cars, we rely on our trucks in driving is not optional for us.
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  Driving is a necessity. So anything we can do to increase options for drivers
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  is a good thing. I'll be looking at the budget to see if that
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  does include some what you called optionality, which will help people choose the plan
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  that's right for them. If that's in the budget, that'll be a good
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  thing. And there's one more thing I want to mention before we before we
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  get away. One of the great things of this country this government is our
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  investment in infrastructure. I was mentioning water infrastructure a moment ago, but we
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  have to talk about road infrastructure as well. Don't forget that we're already widening
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  Highway three from two lanes to four lanes all the way from the town of
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  Kingsville to the town of Essex. That's going to increase the safety of that
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  road. But as well, you get to remember there's at least one thy
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  five hundred trucks that leave the Kingsville Leamington area every single day. They're bringing
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  products across Essex County and to the border to markets in the United States.
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  We all know in our region how important our relationship is, our economic relationship
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  with the United States, and so this is also going to help bolster our
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  region as a continuing economic powerhouse. I'm so happy that we're actually delivering on
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  the expansion of Highway three from two to four lanes. It's very important,
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  absolutely. And one last thing as well that I should know. We also
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  heard yesterday from hospital President and CEO David Muji that construction is set to begin
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  for the new mega hospital in twenty twenty six. Your reaction on that more
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  great news. Again, We'll all remember that another government made that promise and
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  never delivered. But doug Ford said he went in there like an eight hundred
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  pound gorilla and was going to get that done and he did it for us,
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  and we're so grateful. Well, I want to thank you so much
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  for your time, thank you for joining me. I know that it's a
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  really hectic day, especially being budget day, so I'll let you get back
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  to it all all right. Thanks John, have a great day you as
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  well. Thank you so much. That is the Member of Provincial Parliament for
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  Essex, Anthony Leardi, providing us our first preaction to the twenty twenty four
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  Ontario budget.