Someone new will represent the Sault after Feb. 27

One thing is certain in Sault Ste. Marie: someone new will represent the riding after the Feb. 27 election.

After Thursday’s provincial election, the riding of Sault Ste. Marie will have a new MPP.

Outgoing Progressive Conservative Ross Romano’s retirement from provincial politics means that the riding’s 60,000 voters need to get to know some new faces to cast their vote.

CTV News invited each candidate whose party has a member in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to answer five questions on the main issues and concerns going into the election.

Progressive Conservative and the Green Party candidates rejected the opportunity for their candidates to speak with CTV News.

Health-care access

New Democrat candidate Lisa Vezeau-Allen said her party has a health-care plan for northern Ontario.

“We’re going to create a northern command centre for referrals and (reduce) red tape for doctors,” Vezeau-Allen said.

“I met with the Ontario Medical Association president, Dr. (Dominik) Nowak, and they love this plan.”

The Sault Ste. Marie city councillor added that if Marit Stiles becomes the next premier of Ontario, the NDP will “invest $4 billion over four years to bring more doctors and health care workers to the north. We’re planning on 300 coming here into the north, 250 of which are going to be primary care physicians.”

Liberal Party candidate Gurwinder Dusanjh moved to the Sault in 2013. Dusanjh is an entrepreneur and works as a customer service representative at a local bank. He also founded the Algoma Sikh Association.

Dusanjh takes issue with the way health care in the riding has been addressed by the Progressive Conservative government.

“The issue with voters in health-care access right now, especially in Sault Ste. Marie, is that all of our concerns (are) drowned out at the office of the MPP and especially with over 10,000 people who have lost their doctor and other doctors who are going to be coming to the age of retirement,” he said.

“We actually need a plan to go forward that will address these issues in a way that is doable.”

Dusanjh said he’s looked at each party’s platforms and agrees with Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s.

“The actual main takeaway I took from it was the hiring of over 3,000 doctors,” he said.

“But if you just hire 3,000 doctors and they have to do paperwork, they’re not really putting the skills that they learned to use. So then there’s also a plan to hire more assistant staff in order to take care of that paperwork on the evenings and on the weekends.”

Affordable housing

While some in the Sault would argue that the city is ahead of the curve when it comes to housing, the issue remains at the forefront for many voters.

Dusanjh said the key lies in the types of homes that are built.

“I believe that instead of building McMansions, as people call them, is to build accessible housing – 3,000 square feet or lower,” he said.

“So those ones could actually be accessible and have room for families. If … we’re able to build the right kind of housing and have that approach, then I think that that will fix it. Also, the cap, or the actual plan to cap international students at 10 per cent of the student population would also be helpful.”

Vezeau-Allen said affordable housing is on everyone’s mind.

“We’ve got two platforms, both for renters and for owners,” she said.

“We want to take provincially owned lands and give those to nonprofits and co-ops so that they can build houses. We are also going to take a look at being able to reduce the amount of rent that people can increase in terms of renters and landlords and really work with folks so that people can have affordable housing.”

Trump and tariffs

A growing concern for many voters, especially in a border city like Sault Ste. Marie, is the tariff threat coming from U.S. President Donald Trump.

With sweeping tariffs scheduled for March 4, and specific tariffs on steel and aluminum on March 12, candidates spoke about what should be done on a provincial level to combat the trade threats from south of the border.

Vezeau-Allen said she met with Steelworkers to hear first-hand from those whose jobs may be at risk.

“We need to take, a very holistic approach in that we need all the premiers on board,” she said.

“We need union leaders on board. We need industry executives on board. We need to diversify our exports. We need to also diversify our supply chain. And that by working together, I think will definitely, we need to attack tariffs, head on and have solutions and, work together with everyone, throughout this country because it’s going to it’s not just affecting Sault Ste. Marie -- it’s affecting all of us.”

Dusanjh said more should have been done to protect against tariffs well in advance of Trump making the actual threats.

“Why didn’t we safeguard ourselves for the second oncoming presidency?” he said.

“We knew he was going to go for it. So why didn’t we have our plan set in place? We have to have interprovincial barriers to trade looked at and reassessed. In terms of Algoma Steel and other local businesses, what we have to have is a fund that is accessible to those businesses. So I believe in the Ontario platform, there’s going to be a fund of capital that’s available to small businesses that will help them get through this storm. And it’s going to be available at government rates.”

Homelessness and addictions

Homelessness and addictions are a crisis that has grown steadily across the country.

“These issues are not being addressed,” said Dusanjh, who works in the Sault’s downtown and said he and his clients see the issue daily.

“Through my conversations with stakeholders such as the Indian Friendship Centre, those resources are not being put in the right place. And what we need to do is work with people on the ground, organizations who are on the ground to have a good (idea of) what’s going on in the actual city. And we need to deal with the root causes of these instead of the symptoms.”

Vezeau-Allen said her party is prepared to hit the ground running to tackle homelessness and addiction shortly after the election.

“We have a plan within the first 100 days of taking government to do all of those things,” she said, adding that at its core, it’s a health-care issue.

“We want to have a broad youth mental health available to all youth that is covered. So if you go see your doctor for primary care, you can also see a mental health worker at the same time. And it’s really like by addressing that, I think we’re going to see, our communities thrive.”

Economy and affordability

With the general cost of living steadily increasing, and more people needing access to food banks than ever before, Vezeau-Allen said expenses always come back to basic needs.

“What we all need is food,” she said.

“I’ve done a lot of work into food security, and the NDP platform includes a grocery rebate, so the maximum will be $120 per month. That will go right into families' bank accounts. It’s going to be based on family size and income. And that is something that we’re going to roll out in the first 100 days of taking government.”

Her Liberal counterpart said his career in banking has resulted in many conversations on the “cost of living getting out of hand.”

Dusanjh said his party has solutions to help Ontarians where it’s most needed.

“Essentially what we need is financial literacy also,” he said.

“What we also need is, and what I appreciate in the Liberal platform, is the tax cut to middle-income earners. And I believe there’s going to be an increase on ODSP that instead of $30,000 is when you have to repay, it’s going to be $50,000.”