Committee hearing pre-budget presentations across the province

The province’s standing committee on finance and economic affairs is holding pre-budget consultations.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is on the committee which is in Sudbury Tuesday.

He says several presentations will be made on healthcare.

“Broom closets that have turned into hospital rooms, those kinds of scenarios. So we know that we need to create more long term care beds in Ontario,” he says.

Fedeli says it’s important that patients be in long care homes and not in hospitals because that’s where they belong.

He spoke from Thunder Bay where he says there were several presentations on proposed government changes that will impact the forestry sector.

Presenters called proposed changes to various legislation like the Endangered Species Act, The Far North Act and The Caribou Plan, catastrophic.

Fedeli says pocket book issues are another large concern.

“Get your hands out of our pockets. The Ontario Chamber is talking about the devastating effects of the minimum wage and we’ve heard how many more tens of thousands of jobs are going to be lost,” he says.

He says prices are rising too and people want the government to turn their attention to things that matter and focus on ways and make Ontario a less expensive place to live.

The committee will also be in Kitchener, Windsor and Ottawa this week.