What is or isn't in the throne speech for northwestern Ontario?: Local politicians respond

Promises were aplenty in the Liberal minority government's speech from the throne, which was delivered by the nation's Governor General Julie Payette on September 23.

Topics ranged from climate action to empowering women to tackling systemic discrimination, but the focus was largely on supporting Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic and helping communities to build back up.

Specifically for residents of northwestern Ontario, Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Superior North Patty Hajdu says there is a lot to be interested in.

"I think for people living in northwestern Ontario, first of all, the message is we'll continue to be there for you throughout this pandemic crisis. COVID has changed the world, has changed Canada, and it's certainly been an unprecedented crisis in our lifetime. And I think the takeaway from northwestern Ontario is that the measures that have been in place to help support people through COVID-19 will continue."

Hajdu added, "The longer piece is that COVID-19 has exposed some of the cracks in our social safety net that we, as Canadians, treasure. So, for example, our employment insurance program, which was designed to be there for people who had hard times, who had lost their job or were having a hard time finding a job, has become more and more complex and less and less accessible. This is the opportunity to reshape E.I. to be fairer and more just."

The federal minister also mentioned a series of other promises, including more supports for people living with disabilities, a national childcare system, supports for working women, universal pharmacare and "focusing on clean growth and accelerating our fight with climate change."

Kenora MP Melillo 'incredibly disappointed' with the throne speech

Eric Melillo, the Member of Parliament for Kenora and recently appointed opposition critic for Northern Affairs and FedNor, did not see much in the throne speech for residents in northwestern Ontario.

"This was an incredibly disappointing speech. To me it's promising more of the same. In fact, it's very promising, nearly every single broken Liberal promise of the past. We see lots of new spending, but nothing to help Canadians who are worried about the health."

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Melillo added, "when we look at some of their other ... throne speech promises, I'm talking about taking action on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, talking about important infrastructure improvements, drinking water, Internet connectivity ... these are all promises that the Liberals have made before, and they've been in power for five years and have failed to deliver."

The Conservative MP was happy to hear the Liberal government prioritize some issues that are especially pertinent in northwestern Ontario, but demanded action.

"I was happy to see that Internet connectivity was mentioned and that their commitment to ending drinking water advisories was mentioned. But again, this is all things that were mentioned for far too long and I think it's time that the government actually take some action on them."

Remote communities and First Nations need more support

Melillo also addressed the need for more government supports for remote and First Nation communities in the region.

"Looking at the health crisis as a whole, I think that the Liberals have been slow in their response. We found out that they knew about the severity of the pandemic in December and didn't do anything about it. They mismanaged our PPE and equipment and they weren't able to get resources into remote First Nation communities quick enough. And we've seen the results of that."

However, Minister Hajdu said ongoing commitments to Indigenous communities and "closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities" were critical components of the speech from the throne.

"I think one of the things that has been a success in protecting Indigenous communities was actually direct transfers to communities of significant amounts of money ... communities know best what they need and how to either heal or grow and so I think work on closing the infrastructure gap and accelerating investments to meet the clean drinking water commitment ... these are all things that are going to be of interest to Indigenous communities here in northern Ontario."