THUNDER BAY – Unlike two other Progressive Conservative party leadership hopefuls, Christine Elliott is not promising to double the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation budget to $200 million.
But she’s not ruling it out.
Elliott, who finished runner up to Patrick Brown when the PC’s sought to replace Tim Hudak at the helm of the party after twice failing to win the premiership, on Thursday said she’d consider all possibilities at should she win the race and dethrone Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals on June 7.
It’s got to be what’s best for the region, said the 62-year-old, who served as deputy party leader under Hudak from 2009 to 2016.
“What I would like to do first is look at the fund. From what I understand, people find it very difficult to access,” said Elliott, who was married to former federal Conservative finance minister Jim Flaherty until his 2014 death.
“There’s some money in the fund that actually doesn’t get used because people can’t be approved for it. So I want to take that apart and look at what the problems are so people then get access to it. Then if it needs to be increased, which I suspect it might … then I would certainly increase the funding.”
Elliott, up against Caroline Mulroney, Doug Ford, Tanya Granic Allen and Brown – who rejoined the race after declaring he’d cleared himself of sexual misconduct allegations – made plenty of promises during a campaign stop at Thunder Bay’s Thyme Restaurant, in front of about 65 supporters.
First and foremost she promised to get the Ring of Fire moving, something Elliott said the Liberals have failed to do during 15 years in power at Queen’s Park.
The time is now, said Elliott, currently serving as Ontario’s first patient ombudsman, appointed by Liberal Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Eric Hoskins.
“I think we actually need to do something about it, rather than just talk about it, which is what the Wyne Liberals have done,” she said. “We need to get action with all the parties involved, including the Matawa First Nations, as well as the developers as well as the people in the municipalities,” Elliott said.
“This is a huge issue for Northern Ontario. It’s a $60-billion project. It creates 5,500 jobs and $2 billion annually for government revenues. It’s vital that we do it so we need to get the parties together and start building the roads.”
Elliott, who spoke to the gathering for about seven minutes before visiting with individual supporters at the two-year-old south-side eatery, received her biggest applause when she promised to reverse Ontario’s carbon-tax plan and offered up she’d be willing to fight Ottawa’s plan to implement one country-wide, following Saskatchewan and Alberta in opposing the idea.
“I think we cannot just sit by and let Justin Trudeau tell us what we have to do in Ontario. I think there are questions as to the constitutionality of what he’s proposing and I think we fight back for Ontario. That’s where I’d want to start.”
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives, who have yet to choose a candidate in Thunder Bay-Atikokan, will choose their new leader on March 10. Brown is expected to visit Thunder Bay next week. Mulroney was here on Tuesday. Neither Ford nor Granic Allen have indicated plans to visit the city.
