Ontario NDP’s Stiles slams province’s plan to merge Conservation Authorities and response to Cami Assembly workers

NDP Leader Marit Stiles was in the region, keeping up the pressure on Doug Ford as job losses continue to hit communities. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe has more.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles spent Friday on a tour of southwestern Ontario where she challenged the provincial government’s response to the loss of the BrightDrop EV delivery van from the Cami Assembly and expressed doubts in a plan to streamline Conservation Authorities.

“I’m very concerned. I do not see a strategy from the government on how we’re going to save the auto sector. I don’t see a jobs strategy,” Stiles told CTV News before a tour of Pillar Non-Profit Network’s Innovation Works.

A decision by General Motors to end production of the BrightDrop electric delivery van has threatened 1,200 unionized jobs at the Cami Automotive Plant in Ingersoll.

She asserted that her repeated calls on the government for a provincial jobs’ strategy have gone unanswered.

“We already have 800,000 Ontarians unemployed in the province. This government has been a jobs disaster!”

Meanwhile, the NDP Leader is also expressing concern about the province’s intention to streamline and amalgamate Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities into seven regional authorities overseen by a new provincial agency.

On Friday, Environment Minister Todd McCarthy announced his intent to make sweeping changes because, “(When) the workings of the Conservation Authorities are not serving the people as well as they ought to, then we’re not protecting Ontario.”

McCarthy said no job losses would result from his plan to improve service and ensure consistent policies across the province.

“To build critical infrastructure faster, to build housing faster, to get national projects in the ground faster,” he explained.

“Conservation Authorities should enhance that; they shouldn’t be an impediment to it.”

“Look, nothing that the government has done so far in the eight years they’ve been in power has actually increased or sped-up homebuilding in this province,” Stiles countered.

“Home starts are down to the lowest in the country!”

Stiles believes the changes will reduce the impact of local voices in decisions that impact waterways, erosion, and conservation lands.

“Those decisions are best made here in the communities which are going to be impacted. I think a lot of Ontarians will be unhappy to hear that those decisions are going to be centralized for the most part in Toronto,” she added.

London is currently served by three conservation authorities that oversee the Upper Thames, Lower Thames, and Kettle Creek watersheds.