Tim Hudak's Pre-Election Letter to CARP


Dear Members of CARP:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell you about our changebook plan to provide Ontario seniors with the respect and relief they need and deserve.

Changebook emerges from our conversations we have had with families in every corner of this province, including through our unprecedented Have Your Say Ontario discussion. Hard working families told us their priorities for change, and we have reflected those priorities in changebook. Through changebook, a Tim Hudak government will provide the respect and relief families so clearly deserve.

As my wife Debbie and I travel across Ontario with our daughter Miller, we very much enjoy the opportunity to meet with seniors. The message that I constantly hear from seniors is that they are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet in Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario. At every stop I make, I am approached by seniors who tell me they fear having to move out of their homes because they can no longer afford Dalton McGuinty’s expensive energy experiments or his tax hikes like the HST and his sneaky eco tax. I constantly run into seniors who are waiting for operations or medical procedures, and they don’t understand why the government is wasting billions of their dollars on expensive eHealth consultants and LHIN bureaucrats, and not on the urgent care that they need and deserve. Clearly, seniors need a change.

In our changebook, we announced that we will make healthcare the top funding priority for an Ontario PC government. In fact, by the end of its first term, we will increase annual investments in health care by nearly $6.1 billion while moving funds out of waste and administration and into care for people.

An Ontario PC government will put patients first by:
• introducing a rigorous system of patient satisfaction and health outcome measures;
• establishing wait time guarantees for emergency room visits;
• adding and creating 40,000 new and renovated long-term care beds;
• increasing investments in home care, and giving families more control over services;
• bringing more doctors to the communities that need them, and encouraging doctors, nurses, and physician assistants to work collaboratively in under-serviced areas, and
• getting rid of waste and unnecessary bureaucracy, including LHINs, and reinvesting every dollar back into frontline patient care.

While Ontario seniors are being squeezed by cuts in frontline services, living as a senior in our province is becoming less and less affordable under the McGuinty government. Across Ontario, seniors have told me that they need respect and relief from their government.

Changebook commits to giving seniors relief:
• We will remove HST from home heating and hydro bills.
• We will remove the debt retirement charge, the DRC, from your Hydro bill • We will also unplug the mandatory smart meters.
• We will stop Dalton McGuinty’s policy that forces seniors to cook their meals, do their laundry, and heat or cool their homes when he sees fit.
• We’re going to cancel Dalton McGuinty’s sneaky eco taxes. These taxes do not improve the environment.
• Families that choose to care for a loved one in their own homes make a significant sacrifice and bear a financial burden. A Tim Hudak government will double the caregiver tax credit.

The last eight years have been tough on our seniors. Ontario needs change. Change that puts families first. Changebook is how a Tim Hudak government will take Ontario forward responsibly, with respect for the people of this province who pay the bills.

On October 6, Ontario families will have a decision to make. They can choose four more years of Dalton McGuinty raising their families’ taxes, wasting their money and never standing up for the things they believe in; or, they can choose a Tim Hudak government and a changebook plan that will deliver them the respect and relief they need and deserve.

Sincerely,

Tim Hudak
Ontario PC Leader