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Fedeli Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Ontario’s Government For the People

NORTH BAY –  MPP Vic Fedeli today celebrated the one-year anniversary since Ontario’s Government for the People took office and working for the people of Nipissing to put their interests first.

Fedeli restated his commitment to respect taxpayers, encourage job creation, and put people first. To date, over 250 initiatives have been implemented by the government, including charting a reasonable and responsible path to a balanced budget that protects the core services the people of Nipissing and people across Ontario rely on every day.

“Our government has been working day and night to restore trust in Ontario’s finances, invest in healthcare and education, and make Ontario open for business and open for jobs,” said MPP Fedeli. “Today, we can proudly say: ‘Promises made, promises kept.’”

Over the past year, the government has delivered on a number of campaign commitments that put more money back in people’s pockets, including:

• Cancelling the punishing cap-and-trade carbon tax, saving the average family $260 a year and 4.3 cents a litre at the gas pumps.
• Ensuring minimum wage workers pay no personal income tax in Ontario, saving them up to $800 a year.
• Introducing one of the most flexible childcare tax credits for low- and middle-income families in Ontario’s history.
• Scrapping the outdated Drive Clean program and freezing driver and vehicle fees.
• Improving choice and convenience for consumers by expanding the sale of beer and wine to corner stores, big-box stores, and more grocery stores.

Ontario’s Government for the People is also working to make Northern Ontario open for business and open for jobs. The government recently announced its desire to end the delays and move forward with willing partners to develop the unlimited potential of the Ring of Fire. To address skilled labour shortages and create more jobs in Indigenous and Northern communities, it created the Northern Ontario Internship Program. The government continues to work with private sector partners to expand access to natural gas to help lower electricity costs, as well as improve broadband service in more Northern communities to help these entrepreneurs enter and compete in the digital economy.

The province continues to work with rural and Northern partners to protect what matters most. It continues to work on providing disaster recovery assistance to recently flood-impacted areas like Mattawa, and provided $100 million in emergency forest fire fighting assistance last summer. To support small and rural municipalities, the government provided $200 million to enable them to modernize their services, save money, and serve their residents better. It has also protected double-hatter firefighters to improve fire safety in rural municipalities, and scrapped the Green Energy Act, which ignored the voice of these communities in rural energy projects.  The government is working with Ontario’s farmers to cut red tape to help them save time and money, including modernizing the licensing and certification processes for agri-businesses.

Premier Doug Ford and the government will continue to work to ensure rural and Northern Ontario thrives.

The government also continues to support seniors and their families. That includes the allocation of 7,000 new long-term care beds over the past year, fulfilling almost half of the government’s commitment toward bringing in 15,000 new long-term care spaces over five years. The government has also delivered on its promise to provide free dental care for up to 100 million low-income seniors in Ontario. The government is currently holding consultations to hear from seniors, caregivers and organizations to inform a new government-wide Seniors Strategy. Finally, the province provided estate tax relief to help reduce the burden on grieving loved ones.

“Everything we do, we do for the people. We have an opportunity build for our future,” added Fedeli.  “I look forward to continuing to work with our government over the next year to make life better for the people of Ontario and turn this province around.”

Promises Made, Promises Kept: Highlights from the Government’s First Year in Office