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Decentralized Democracy

Doly Begum

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Scarborough Southwest
  • New Democratic Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • Unit 5 3110 Kingston Rd. Scarborough, ON M1M 1P2 DBegum-CO@ndp.on.ca
  • tel: 416-261-9525
  • fax: 416-261-0381
  • DBegum-QP@ndp.on.ca

  • Government Page
  • May/17/23 3:50:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 85 

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I want to thank the member for his question. Honestly, I wish this were the type of dialogue that we could have because we need to have a public park, a public space that is serving the people of this province, that is accessible, that won’t cost the people money and actually give profit to a private company that is not even Ontarian.

And not to mention, one of the things that’s really difficult for me is understanding—has the government actually done research on Therme? We’re giving $650 million to a luxury spa. Have we done—like, what their financial track record is? They have a very problematic track record in the UK. Have we done our research to see what they have done, what their track record looks like and what it will mean when we have a 95-year lease for Ontario? Because that’s a defective sale—

Interjection.

That means we need to make sure that people don’t go hungry, don’t go homeless. That is the most important part when we talk about budgets because then you’re prioritizing things like housing, you’re prioritizing things like the amount you need for ODSP and OW. We’re not keeping up with those things. We’re not keeping up with the inflation rate of any of these needs, and that’s what the result is. We’re seeing thousands of people lining up, and some people who have never gone to a food bank are now getting food at a food bank.

267 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
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