ON: What are the big priorities for your government and you personally here in Oakville?
SC: For the government, there’s a lot of priorities. Number one is to ensure the cost of living and affordability for people is not going up excessively, and the economy is growing strong.
It’s also a priority to ensure we can deliver efficient, good and speedy health care to the people of Ontario.
Education is obviously critical – to make sure kids are in school, with extracurricular activities and a normalized school environment.
Those are a couple of the key priorities.
In terms of Oakville, I think issues of infrastructure – building bridges and efficient transportation are important here locally.
We have a pretty new hospital here but ensuring it's at proper staffing levels and perhaps even expanding it. There’s another floor there that could be put to use at some point, so I think that’s something that could be looked at with additional funding from the provincial government.
ON: Housing affordability has been a hot topic – not just for buyers but also around some of the reforms discussed related to zoning issues. What can you tell me about the implementation of recommendations from the Housing Affordability Task Force?
Housing affordability is a major issue everywhere.
Our government does want to tackle that issue.
We are increasing the housing stock and have added more rental builds over the last year than in the last 30 years in the province of Ontario, and that’s partly as a result of the government encouraging that.
However, it’s still not enough, and we have to do more.
The government has to do more to encourage faster development and reduce red tape so that builders will be able to build in shorter time spans, which will definitely reduce the costs for builders and the end users buying the product.
ON: Some critics, including Oakville’s mayor, have argued that some of these recommended reforms will make it quicker and easier to build a house, but there’s no guarantee that this will trickle down to buyers. It may simply make it more profitable for developers to build.
SC: I think at the end of the day, we need to be able to reduce the input costs where we can. If we are able to do that, it can only help the situation.
ON: One of the most contentious of the recommended reforms relates to changing zoning restrictions. For many Oakville homeowners, I think the notion that someone could put up a four-storey building beside their house is alarming.
SC: I believe that was in the recommendations, but it isn’t adopted at this point, and I don’t have any vision to seeing that that will happen. There were some recommendations that were adopted, and there are some that could be further, but I don’t think anything’s been finalized in that respect.
https://oakvillenews.org/opinion/intensification-densification-and-the-housing-affordability-/
ON: When we spoke at the beginning of the year, you expressed optimism about the future, and even the government’s April pre-election budget was pretty optimistic. Has the combination of interest rates, inflation and other global issues changed your confidence?
SC: Perhaps in the short term, there will be some bumps, but I think in the medium and long term, the outlook for the Ontario economy is incredibly strong.
We have far more jobs in the province than we have people. We could hire 300,000 or 400,000 people right now in a variety of different professions. We need people – we’ve got jobs. This is not like a recession of the 70s or even the 90s, where there was high unemployment. We have really very low unemployment.
The inflation issue is really as a result of some of these supply chain issues and excessive commodity prices in the short term.
We’ve got the Ring of Fire that we want to develop over the next 10 years, which will provide incredible opportunities for northern Ontarians and Indigenous communities. This is an enormous potential of critical minerals which are required for electric vehicles and EV batteries. Obviously, Canada is a safe jurisdiction to do business, and there’s a lot of interest from other countries in helping Ontario in that respect.
We've seen the biggest automobile investments in Ontario history over the last six months – in fact, the largest investment in Canadian history.
Under the previous government, manufacturing was leaving the province in droves. We’re now seeing a manufacturing renaissance here in the province of Ontario and I think that’s really exciting.
So, there are always bumps along the road, but I think the outlook for the Ontario economy, both in the medium and long terms, is very strong.
ON: We’d certainly be interested in hearing anything about an addition to the Oakville hospital, but recent news has identified underspending of allocated health care dollars. Why?
SC: The report you are referring to is from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO), which basically is a snapshot in time. The public accounts, which come out a little later, which really give all the data for the period of time in question, will really be more up to date and accurate.
There may be funding that is occurring but may not be booked until the next quarter, for example. But I know the provincial government has invested more in health care than any government in the history in Ontario. We’ve expanded the number of nurses; we’re opening a new medical school in Brampton because we know that we need more doctors. That’s the first expansion of the number of new medical graduates in decades in Ontario.
We recognize that there’s definitely an issue and as our demographics change, evolve and age, we’re going to need more health care workers. There’s no doubt about that.
But our government has put investment in that sector to ensure there is adequate and good health care.
ON: How do we help Oakville businesses can find an adequate supply of people to work for them?
SC: Number one is to get people in the proper training. Working in collaboration with colleges and universities to ensure they are meeting the needs of today of tomorrow with the courses they set up so that people can have useful careers right in our community.
We want to have a great community to live in. Prices are higher here than in other parts of the GTA but that’s because Oakville’s such a great community that people do want to live here.
Labour shortage is not just an issue in Oakville, it’s across the province. We need to attract more immigrants here. The government of Ontario has talked to the federal government about trying to have more impact in terms of how many people we can bring into the province, like for example, Quebec does. We do need more skilled and unskilled labour.
The labour requirements of our province right now range from service workers in restaurants to high tech workers, automotive engineers, plumbers, electricians, people to work in the mining sector. It’s broad-based and across the spectrum that we need people here, so we need to work collaboratively with the federal government to see that we have the right people here in the province to fill these jobs.
We have increased the minimum wage and we are increasing it this fall as well.
ON: You’ve been appointed parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Finance, which ties well into your personal skill set. What do you hope to accomplish and how will you contribute?
SC: You are correct, my background is in finance, so I’m thrilled to be working as parliamentary assistant to finance. I’ll also be on the finance committee. That’s an important committee that does budget consultations through the province and hears from stakeholders, business groups and individuals about the state of the province and what they feel should be in the budget. I’ll play a role as a communication link to the Minister of Finance, both from the finance committee but also in my capacity as a parliamentary assistant.
I’ll be working on some special projects as well, such as looking into money laundering.
I’ve always believed in order to have great education, great health care and a great province to live in, you need a strong economy. If I can play a part in helping the Ontario economy expand faster and grow faster and create that wealth of opportunities for the next generation, I’ll be thrilled.
ON: One dividing line during the last election was the desire for economic growth versus protecting our natural environment. How will you bridge that line?
SC: I don’t think it’s either or thing. For example, look at the electric vehicles that will be manufactured in Ontario and right here in Oakville. That’s great for the environment and its great for business.
We need economic growth, there’s no doubt about that. But we’re not gong to cut corners in terms of the environment in order to do that.
But I firmly believe we can have both.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.