By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Coming soon to a Main Street near you – Northumberland-Peterborough South MP Philip Lawrence.
The MP told Today’s Northumberland this week of his intention to be sure local input goes into the process of shaping what he called “the most important economic recovery of our generation after the pandemic.”
“I am a big believer that local is nearly always best,” the MP stated.
“What I want to do is have an economic recovery tour, where I am going to hear from business owners, from local municipal leaders about what they believe is best.
“I suspect we are going to hear a lot about economic recovery and how the government can clear the runway.
Ultimately it won’t be the government going out there providing the services, creating the jobs, but the government can help clear the runway,” Lawrence said.
“Let’s reduce cumbersome regulations, let’s reduce any type of obstacles or barriers or taxation that inhibits our great business owners from doing what they do best, which is create jobs and generate prosperity for our community.”
A year of COVID-19 restrictions has created a situation the community must overcome on two fronts – attaining the maximum in personal safety and ending dependency on the relief programs that were developed to address the job losses that resulted from businesses shutting their doors.
“The lockdown regulations were required to keep us all safe. But the challenge is how do we get out of this recovery once people are vaccinated. How do we get people to go back to shopping, getting back to restaurants, once we are able to safely. How do we make that happen,” he said.
“We now need to put our shoulders to the grindstone and open our economy safely. Of course, safety is always job one, but after we have got people vaccinated, we need to get this economy back open to make sure everyone in Northumberland-Peterborough South can have a great job and businesses can flourish again.”
Lawrence spoke of a paradox – record high unemployment of more than 9.4% (the highest in the G7, he said) at a time when employers are screaming for employees.
“We need to make sure we put those things together, make sure everyone in Northumberland-Peterborough South has the opportunity to have a great job as we transition away from those supports.”
The various Federal programs had a role to play in getting members of the community through times of shutdown and isolation, he admitted.
“But now we need to get the economy going, because $2,000 a month just isn’t enough for people to live on. We need to bring back great jobs, jobs that pay $30, $40, $50 an hour.
“I think Canadians by and large want to get back to work. But what we can’t have is to have policies in place that actually make it more difficult.”
In the initial stages of CERB, he said, it would have cost some people up to $1,900 to earn $100.
“There should never be a disadvantage to working,” he said, giving one example he hopes to address to the finance committee – the situation where, as a salary rises between $40,000 and $50,000, taxes increase by 50% to 70% because of the clawback of government benefits.
“We should never disincentivize work. I know Canadians want to get out there, they want to work hard, but we can’t put up artificial barriers as a government.”
As far as COVID goes, Lawrence believes Canada is over the hump in spite of the difficulties in establishing a solid supply. There is the prospect of domestic capacity to manufacture vaccine ahead, he said. But for now, “I will be pushing the government – let’s get those jabs in the shoulders as quickly as we possibly can.”
His own hope is to better the Prime Minister’s prediction that Canadians will be fully vaccinated by the end of September – largely because of the number of tourism-related businesses that take advantage of the natural beauty of Northumberland County. The difference, he calculated, could mean saving thousands and thousands of jobs.
And he wants to take advantage of another local asset with his economic recovery tour.
“I am a huge believer that not all great ideas come from Ottawa. They come from places like Cobourg, Cramahe, Port Hope and Campbellford. And we want to get those ideas and bring them back to Ottawa, because I believe Ottawa works best when we are taking great ideas from the community and implementing them, as opposed to an Ottawa-knows-best solution,” he stated.
“I am going to be walking downtown Main Streets, and we are reaching out to business owners – but please don’t hesitate to contact our offices. I am willing to take any and all ideas. The more we hear, the better ideas we will come up with.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
