By Cecilia Nasmith
The new provincial budget contains what Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini called, “big pieces to support people and protect their health and our economy - $51-billion in supports over the next four years.”
It's a far-ranging budget to cover a wide spectrum of needs. But in an interview timed to coincide with the budget's release, Piccini spotlighted some initiatives that may be especially meaningful for this riding.
The demographics in several Northumberland County municipalities skew to the senior population. And the budget came two days after Piccini announced a new long-term-care facility in Cobourg that will bring 133 new beds.
“Ontario has committed to being a leader on long-term care with $4.9-billion over four years to create 27,000 new positions,” Piccini said.
“There's a lot of work that needs to be done, but you have seen across our riding that we're breaking ground on new long-term-care facilities.”
A seniors safety tax credit offers $30-million in supports for renovations that will help seniors age in the homes they love. The government is providing 30,000 new long-term-care beds, he said, but many of these are at the ground-breaking stage. These aids will help seniors age in place longer.
Health-care supports are also key to this goal, and vital to every member of the community as well.
“We're investing another $1.4-billion into PPE for health-care,” Piccini said.
“And this is a big one - $5.1-billion in supports to hospitals.”
This is so welcome in a riding with small and medium-sized hospitals, he noted.
“When I was first elected, Campbellford was on life support. Northumberland Hills Hospital was merging in-patient units just because they didn't have the supports available – beds, HR capacity.
“We fixed the funding formula and are investing more money into our hospitals. There's $1.8-billion in this budget to support small and medium-sized hospitals, and there's a very significant investment in the surgical backlog and lost revenue,” the MPP stated.
“It's not just about hospitals but rural health clinics like the one in Colborne, which opened due to investment in the Ontario Health Team-Northumberland,” he added, referring to the broad-ranging collaboration among municipalities and health-care facilities and agencies that took shape under the Conservative government.
With everything from dazzling natural topography to festivals and events that draw people to the area each year, Northumberland's tourism businesses have suffered under the lockdowns and emergency declarations of the pandemic. There's a $400-million investment in the tourism sector over three years, including a small-business support grant geared to the tourism sector.
And that's not all the business news, Piccini said.
“Ontario small business support grants have benefited 150,000 small businesses with $1.7-billion in relief. A second round is part of the budget. If you have applied, you will get a second round even without reapplying.
“If you got $10,000, you will receive $10,000 again.”
And where would today's business sector be without its on-line capacity. Piccini was pleased to announce an historic $2.8-billion investment in broadband-internet infrastructure. This brings the province's total investment to $4-billion over six years, starting in 2019-2020, comparing well to the Federal $1-billion commitment.
“Over the last few months, I have seen a flurry of applications coming in for projects by internet service providers to expand service, and that's only going to continue because we have a lot more coming in on that front,” he predicted.
For those who lost their jobs during the pandemic, who are looking at the interruption as a chance to retrain, the provincial government is proposing a new training tax credit - $2,000 per recipient or up to 50% of eligible expenses.
“That's $250-million in supports for a quarter-million people,” Piccini said.
Combined with the Canada Training Credit, he added, it could make a big difference. Citing the hypothetical case of someone with $4,000 worth of eligible expenses, he estimates that the Ontario credit could cover $2,000, while the Federal credit would cover $500.
He recently spoke with a woman nearing age 60 who decided to become a personal support worker just because she wanted to care for people. Thanks to government investment, this training – which can exceed $5,000 on average – is free.
“We've already trained 9,000 who are on the way, thanks to this program,” he said.
“We'll have more nurses as well.”
Piccini said the budget has a big focus on people.
“We know domestic violence has increased. We're investing an additional $2.1-million over three years to support victims of crime.”
There's also support for women – a group disproportionately affected by the job loss that the pandemic brought – to develop new skills and rejoin the work force.
There is $175-million in mental-health funding over 10 years through the Road Map to Wellness strategy, plus $1.6-million in support of anti-hate programs, support the police and help at-risk youth.
“For families, the big news is the child tax credit and child benefit,” he added.
To date, $1.8-billion has been invested since last march for the child benefit, which will now be doubled to $400 per child and $500 per special needs child. And the child-care tax credit has a 20% enhancement, which could mean an increase of $1,250 to $1,500 in supports on average to 30,000 families.
And, of course, there's the area that's top of mind for everyone just now – getting vaccinated.
“There's $1-billion for this plan to make it safer to get businesses and jobs and workplaces open, another $2.3-billion in testing and contact tracing.”
At present, the mass-vaccination clinics are inoculating people at a rate far below the numbers they could handle.
“The good news is, we're getting more from the Federal government.”
Piccini shared an incident he'd just seen while attending a vaccination clinic in Norwood, which had to close early when the vaccine ran out. But he did spot a couple from Cobourg who did get the shots they came for.
He watched them leave, “and it wasn't the same couple that walked in. He leans in to giver her a kiss, and they quite literally skipped out of there.
“This is why we are doing this, to keep getting people back to their lives.”
