GREEN LEADER SCHREINER TOURS FLOOD ZONE BEFORE TOWN HALL.

BRACEBRIDGE — Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner “had a great turnout and a very positive crowd” of about 100 at a Town Hall last night, says local GPO riding president Arleigh Luckett.

She said there was standing room only at the Bracebridge Lions Club on Fraserburg Road May 3.

People came from Muskoka and Parry Sound to hear the first elected Green MPP (Guelph), who spoke for about 15 minutes and then took questions from the audience for rest of the hour, Luckett said in an email Saturday morning.

On his way to the Town Hall, she said Schriner was, after all, able to visit the Golden Point Road area where he heard from local residents Sheryl and George Manolakus.

They have lived in the area for many years, and told him hime they originally built their home two feet above the highest water level.

Now sandbags are keeping the water at bay, but the road to the house could only be navigated in George’s four-wheel drive truck.

Luckett said that at the Town Hall, topics of discussion ranged from the watershed management and the climate crisis, to income inequality, the recent government budget and “doing politics differently.”

Schreiner said, as the lone Green MPP at Queens Park he didn’t have a lot of power, but he did have influence.

When asked what he would do about the deficit, Schreiner pointed out that in the fall economic statement the Ford reduced government income by cutting taxes for the top 17%.

He said Ontario has the lowest return on our natural resources of any province.

“We should be raising royalties and increasing the share of royalties that go to Northerners and First Nations.”

He also pointed to the 25% subsidy on hydro rates saying it is costing billions of dollars and giving much more to the wealthy, who he claimed use much more electricity than those with lower incomes.

Schreiner was also a guest speaker at nearby Minett, at the Ontario Chambers of Commerce AGM & Convention Saturday morning.