Provincial Election 2022: Party leaders square off in first debate in Northern Ontario

The first debate of the provincial election campaign was held in Northern Ontario today. The party leaders squared off on matters of affordability, jobs, and the pandemic response.

Ford came under scrutiny by all the other leaders for his handling of the pandemic.

One of the top issues on the minds of voters is affordability.

Liberal leader Steven Del Duca outlined his plan to help municipalities pad out their pocketbooks. “Ontario liberals would take the existing mining tax that is collected by the province and provide 5% to that back to the northern municipalities to support you,” Del Duca said.

Green party leader Mike Schreiner said he’d give all municipalities the same powers as Toronto to earn revenue and control their budgets.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath said raising property taxes can’t be the answer but smaller populations in northern Ontario have led to lower budgets for local governments.

The leaders will face off again Monday, May 16th at 6:30 p.m. CHCH News will be airing the debate live with extensive analysis.