Wellington-Halton Hills candidates on climate change, how to address rural concerns

Wellington-Halton Hills is a large riding that completely surrounds Guelph, Ont., and includes Puslinch, Centre Wellington, Guelph/Eramosa, the town of Erin and goes south toward Milton and east to Brampton.

There are six people running in the Wellington-Halton Hills riding in this provincial election. They are, alphabetically:

• Ted Arnott, incumbent, Progressive Conservatives.
• Diane Ballantyne, NDP.
• Ryan Kahro, Green party.
• Stephen Kitras, New Blue Party.
• Ron Patava, Consensus Party.
• Tom Takacs, Liberal.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo invited the candidates from the four major parties to take part in a panel discussion. Arnott, Ballantyne and Takacs joined CBC Kitchener-Waterloo for a panel discussion on top issues in this provincial election. Kahro was unable to attend due to a previous engagement, but was sent the same questions byemail and her responses have been included below.

Full audio of the panel can be found at the end of this article.

Need to address climate change

Arnott, who has been the MPP for the area since 1990 and for the past four years as served as Speaker of the House at Queen's Park, said the pandemic consumed much of the provincial government's attention over the past two years "by necessity" but the climate crisis "absolutely must be addressed."

"I believe that we in Ontario must do our part to help reduce carbon emissions and reduce our individual carbon footprints. I believe the climate crisis is real and cannot be scientifically disputed," he said.

"I believe that we will make every effort possible to meet our commitments through the Paris Agreement to cut emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 to be part of the solution and working towardnet zero emissions by 2050."

Takacs said he has plans he wants to share with the Liberal party that he thinks could address the issue of climate change. He said he wasn't ready to speak about those ideas publicly, yet.

But he also said it's important to get "cars off the road" because of emissions and he said there's "a serious problem in the trucking industry."

"Everyone seems to forget they pollute as well and that needs to be diverted," he said.

He called for a passive rapid electrical rail system, more electric vehicles and said the province needs to find more green ways to produce energy. He suggested people could help cut emissions by working from home more often.

"This is what's caused this problem around the world," he said."We knew about this 30 years ago. It's not something that's uncommon, but now all of a sudden, you know, it's emergency area. No, we need to get proactive rather than reactive."

Ballantyne said as a councillor in Wellington County, she's taken "meaningful, concrete, measurable action" to cut greenhouse gas emissions. That includes being part of the committee that brought the green bin program to the county. She also took part in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Climate Change for Elected Officials course.

"I also was able to get environmental stewardship into the county's first strategic plan, keeping the focus on our policy making around the triple bottom line social impact, climate impact and financial impact," she said.

She said over the last four years, there have been "vicious attacks on climate change mitigation strategies, ripping down wind turbines, ripping EV charging stations out of the ground, gutting the conservation authorities, wasting $30 billion, and losing the fight with the federal government about the federal climate change action and the continued efforts to carve up the Green Belt."

She said the NDP would introduce a home energy retrofit program to help lower heating and energy bills and provide a $600 credit for home charging stations and ensure that they're mandatory in any new builds.

The party would also restore funding to conservation authorities, offer a rebate on electric vehicle purchases and plant a billion trees.

"There are many things that we can do. Individual actions matter, but broader government policies is what's really going to help us fight the climate crisis," she said.

Kharopointed to the Green party'sRoadmap to Net Zero, which she wrote is a science-based approach to reducing the province's carbon footprint.

"The roadmap outlines how Ontario can cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Our calculations suggest that we can cut them in half by 2030, and by 100 per centby 2045 and beyond (relative to 2005 levels) and we will look for every opportunity to do so even sooner," Kharo wrote.

She listed a number of ways the Green party would do that, includingdoubling Ontario's electricity supply by adding clean renewables and storage and providinggrants and creatinga climate bank to help clean tech innovators.

Role of farmers in economy

Ballantyne said the NDP understands the vital role farmers play in the province's economy.

"They are a massive job creator with 86,000 jobs being provided in the agri-food industry," she said.

"We know that [PC Leader Doug] Ford is no friend to farmers. The sprawl that has been encouraged through development over our farmland, even though the Wellington Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is deeply opposed to losing that kind of valuable farmland."

She said the province needs to do more to bring broadband internet to rural areas and that it should be an essential service.

The NDP would cancel the carbon tax to introduce a cap and trade system with 25 per cent of revenue going to the agriculture industry and northern residents "because we know that they pay more for gas and hydro and are essential to ensuring that we maintain our food sovereignty," Ballantyne said.

Arnott said he has "always made my efforts focused on representing farm families in the legislature and in our communities, because I fully understand the importance of our agriculture and the agrifood industry to our economy and to all of us in Wellington-Halton Hills."

He said the province needs to ensure farmers can be profitable and productive and that also means preserving farmland.

"We do need to revisit this issue in the next provincial parliament. There have been discussions about it, but I think we need to listen to the concerns that are being expressed by our federations of agriculture and others to ensure that we take steps to make sure that our best quality farmland is, in fact, preserved," he said.

He also called for investment in broadband and said it should be expanded to every resident and business in the province by 2025.

Takacs said he's worried the province is "losing touch with farmers" and their business.

"We'd like to introduce the trades, we want to get to farmers with more young people getting involved into the farming community so they can participate and help and help grow that type of industry," he said.

He said he's also concerned about the mental health of farmers and he feels municipalities and the farming community could interact more so they better understand one another.

"My heart bleeds when I see beautiful country and I see a beautiful heritage, a beautiful community," he said. "Once it's gone, it's gone."

Kharo wrote that the Greens would "preserve good land for farming, restore soil healthand support climate-smart agriculture."

She listed a number of ways the party would do that, including that they would rewardclimate-smart farmers through crop and livestock insurance discounts and other incentives, invest in research to improvehow food is grown, produced and distributed,and they would recognise Indigenous Peoples'right to self determination and their right to traditional food systems.

Listen| Wellington-Halton Hill candidates talk housing, cost of living, climate change, addressing the needs of farmers and what they want you to know about them ahead of the provincial election.