PUSLINCH — Promises surrounding the Morriston bypass dominated an all-candidate debate at the Puslinch Community Centre last night.
While questions about healthcare, loss of farmland and aging residents were also asked during the well-attended event hosted by the Optimist Club of Puslinch Thursday evening, all five Wellington-Halton Hills candidates kept circling back to the infamous bypass' future with NDP candidate Simone Kent going as far as to promise the bypass would be one of the main priorities if her party is elected.
Progressive Conservative candidate, Joseph Racinsky and Independent candidate, Ron Patava did not attend the debate.
"With an NDP government, we will immediately cancel the building of Highway 413 and instead put that money straight towards the Morriston bypass," said Kent. "It will be the first priority for infrastructure building in Ontario."
When candidates were asked their thoughts on transportation, Liberal Alex Hilson echoed Kent's urgency surrounding the bypass, saying his party would also cancel Highway 413 and revisit the bypass, calling it an "urgent critical need."
"The Morriston bypass had priority ranking in the way that the province analyzes need when it comes to roads ... that project was overlooked for lesser projects with lower ratings," said Hilson. "It was wrong and it should be revisited."
New Blue candidate Stephen Kitras commented on the importance of funding rural infrastructure and said he believes the Morriston bypass should be a priority over the Fergus bypass, specifically objecting to the idea of bike lanes "on an economic corridor."
Green Party candidate Bronwynne Wilton went in the opposite direction saying she believes public transit options should be improved so people are more inclined to use car alternatives while travelling.
Healthcare and renewable energy were the primary topics dividing the candidates with Kitras and Ontario Party candidate, Jason Medland saying they are pro-privatization while Hilson, Wilton and Kent said they were against and shared alternative strategies.
Hilson said the Liberals would hire 3,100 doctors, modernize administration and build more walk-in clinics under his party's $3.1 billion healthcare plan, approximately as much as Doug Ford's $200 check campaign cost.
Kent said the NDP would hire 3,500 doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses but would instead focus on cutting the red tape for the 13,000 internationally trained doctors currently in the province.
Commenting on the importance of putting people over profit, Wilton also proposed hiring 3,500 doctors through more residency options and medical school including international medical graduates, paying healthcare workers fairly to help employee retention and focus on preventative healthcare.
In her opening remarks, Wilton also lead with how important it is to improve the waitlist for people with autism in need of treatment.
"We want to talk about preventing illnesses by addressing those social and environmental determinants of health ... we need to fix the system upstream before people get sick there's a lot of things we could be doing in various communities to improve that quality of life," said Wilton.
When defending his position, Kitras shared it took his wife, who has cancer, two and a half years to see a specialist and he believes it's important to use private care to help people on waitlists immediately.
Medland took things a step further, saying he'd like to see all administrators fired and more of a reliance on technology to help streamline the process.
Both questioned where the other parties planned to find thousands of extra doctors.
"In terms of privatization, I think there's a place for that," said Medland. "People are doing lots of medical stuff that is elective. We need to focus on the fundamentals and first-line healthcare."
Conversations about housing, while touched on, mainly focused on affordability and how to better allow seniors to age in place in the community.
All candidates also spoke about the importance of the youth vote and the riding's low voter turnout in past elections, specifically saying how important it is to vote in this election since incumbent MPP Ted Arnott will be replaced.
Election day is Feb. 27; advanced voting is available now.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
