Bay of Quinte NDP candidate Amanda Robertson. Photo by Hailey MacDonald
BELLEVILLE – An unexpected by-election in the Bay of Quinte will be taking place on September 19, 2024 following the resignation of Bay of Quinte MPP and Minister of Education, Todd Smith earlier this summer.
There are seven candidates fighting for the position of Bay of Quinte MPP – Sean Kelly (Liberal), Tyler Allsopp (Progressive Conservative), Amanda Robertson (NDP), Lori Borthwick (Green), Margaret Schuler (New Blue), Mark Snow (Libertarian) and John Turmel (Independent).
QNet News reached out to the three major party candidates running in the riding. Progressive Conservative candidate Tyler Allsopp did not return calls before deadline. QNet News ended up speaking to Sean Kelly (Liberal) and Amanda Robertson (NDP) about their goals as MPP, what they’re hearing from the people and the change they want to see in the Bay of Quinte region.
Kelly mentioned some challenges the population of the Bay of Quinte were facing when he did his door-to-door campaigns. He said one of the greatest concerns is the lack of primary health care for individuals.
“Belleville General Hospital has the second highest wait time in the province. Over 20,000 people don’t have a family doctor, if they need to have something looked at, they go to the emergency room,” Kelly mentioned. “So, that’s where the backlog comes into play,” Kelly said he had a conversation with Paula Mason, who is in charge of doctor recruitment in Quinte West, who mentioned they are short ten doctors.
“When you talk to people who say ‘I haven’t had a doctor in six years, I’m still driving to Ajax, Barrie, Ottawa to see my family doctor.’ When communities welcome people, they want good schools, good healthcare and lots of parks. We have all of those in Belleville, we just need better service, more health officials in our hospitals,” Kelly said.
Another challenge in the Bay of Quinte Kelly would like to tackle is support for the vulnerable and unhoused population. The City of Belleville is planning to open a hub for the most vulnerable in connection with United Way and the John Howard Society of Belleville.
“We’ve had zero dollars to really help us,” Kelly stated. “That’s going to cost $4.1 million. We hope to have it open in December of this year. The city is not really getting any money for that project, but we were first in line.”
Kelly brought up an example of last winter in Belleville when 23 people collapsed downtown due to drug-related complications and Mayor Neil Ellis put the city in a state of emergency.
“I’ve met twice with the ministry for funding on the hub, to offer services and give them hope that things can get better, but we’ve received nothing.”
Additionally, Kelly would like to create a better education experience for the children in the Bay of Quinte region.
“Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board this year, their budget is about $220 million, about $2 million of that is going towards busing just to make sure kids get to school,” Kelly said. “That’s $2 million out of the budget that could be used for more resources, more staff, but it has to go to busing because they don’t have the financial support from the Ford government. But, kids need to be at school.”
Kelly is also on the Belleville Accessibility Advisory Committee and wants to continue supporting children with physical challenges.
“There are a lot of students who face physical challenges to get to school, do they have the support, do they have the speech therapy, do they have counseling, are they having professionals partner with schools? Because the climate has really changed,” Kelly mentioned.
Kelly is feeling optimistic about the upcoming by-election, saying the Liberal party has received a lot of positive reaction and enthusiasm from doing door-to-doors.
Robertson says she is hearing similar reactions from her door-to-door campaigns about the desire for the change the Bay of Quinte region. Robertson is the treasurer for the John Howard Society of Belleville and working on the homelessness epidemic in the area is one of the biggest concerns for her.
“At every point, it becomes really evident the way that the provincial government holds all the cards with respect to all of these problems,” Robertson stated.
“We don’t have a reliable partner in the provincial government that’s willing to come to the table and not just hear our problems, they’re good at hearing our problems, but they’re not great at actioning our solutions.”
Robertson is eager to be a representative of the voices of the Bay of Quinte in Queens Park and advocate for the needs of the area.
“With my work with the John Howard Society, we really pushed for the Bridge Hub. We recognize that our homeless population has outgrown the space that we’ve been filling and that’s something that is very near and dear to me, this is a complex social problem that is going to take all hands on deck to help navigate,” she mentioned.
“It’s really going to take dollars and if we don’t have a government that’s willing to invest, it’s only going to get worse.”
Another concern for Robertson is the cost of living in the Bay of Quinte. “It’s not just those who dream of home ownership, but for those that just want a safe space to live,” she stated.
“We are hearing about skyrocketing rents and it’s impacting people’s ability to put food on the table or pay for prescription medication. It’s really affecting our older folks and those on a fixed income.” She mentioned many seniors in the area would like to downsize or live in homes more accessible for their mobility needs, but they cannot afford it.
Robertson is also the vice-chair of the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board. A big concern for both her and the people of the Bay of Quinte is quality education for youth.
“We’ve heard a lot of concerns about transportation and lack of access to busing. We have kids who are struggling to get to school, the buses are late because of routing issues, bus driver shortages, so we have families that are missing work because they can’t get their kids to school,” Robertson stated.
“It’s really stemming from a lack of investment in our public institutions.” Robertson is pushing the importance of reliable transportation for students because that is the first step of education, students being in class.
Another concern for Robertson is healthcare in the region and access to quality care. “The reality is, we have fabulous people working, but they are stretched so thin and they are so burnt out, they know that patient care is suffering because of a lack of dollars being invested into the system,” Robertson mentioned.
“This is impacting our community members. We are feeling these cuts, it’s not just numbers, these are real people with real stories who need help.”
Robertson mentioned the NDP’s are really focusing on tenable municipal taxes and reuploading provincial responsibilities back to the province, not municipalities.
“This is so we don’t have to resort to things like speed cameras on Sidney Street to cover the cost of doctor recruitment or funding the hub, because that is healthcare, that is housing, those are provincial responsibilities,” Robertson stated. “An NDP government would come to the table and be a more reliable and stable partner for municipalities by reuploading a lot of those services.”
Advanced voting in the riding has already started and continues until Sept. 18th.
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