In this section, Shane answers the questions that voters are asking him. Please feel free to send him your questions.

What was your primary motive for entering the political arena?

I have been serving through the LocalMotive Project since 2003, helping Bruce-Grey citizens come to terms with the challenges we face as result of global economic contraction. As many of the solutions lie within the jurisdiction of the Ontario government, it became obvious that I needed to run in order to push for the changes needed to allow Bruce-Grey to prosper in the future.

What do you think is the most important issue of concern to your constituents?

There are all of the usual concerns about jobs, healthcare, education, and energy supply, but overshadowing all of them is a feeling that politicians and political parties are not serving the interests of citizens. Citizens know that they are not being told the truth about our economic situation and increasingly see the political system as a self-serving power game. Voters want to hear about how their local representative will help them navigate an uncertain future and bring a new era of prosperity to our region.

What will your primary goals be if you are elected?

I will immediately get to work on several issues that are critical to our future in Bruce-Grey. These include:

• Moving our healthcare system to a more efficient and locally relevant model of delivery.
• Pursuing opportunities for the region in the rapidly emerging solar energy sector.
• Working on a rural mobility strategy to aid the movement of people and goods around the region.
• Working toward structural and regulatory reforms in food and agriculture to make farming profitable.
• Pursuing greater authority for local municipalities to address local rural challenges.

What values would you bring to the Ontario Legislature that you would not compromise?

I will commit to representing the interests of the citizens of Bruce-Grey, not the interests of a political party. This means that I will support good ideas and oppose bad ones regardless of the source. I will be active in building consensus in the legislature around issues that are important to Bruce-Grey citizens. I will work for a decentralized approach to decision making that rejects the urban based, centralized planning of both the PC and Liberal parties.

A segment of this constituency does not exercise its right to vote because they feel that their voice is never heard. What do you feel is needed to make politics and political parties more relevant to the citizenry at large?

We must see a return to true representative democracy. This means less party control over the actions of elected members. Elected representatives must be free to voice the opinions and concerns of citizens without fear of discipline. In this election there is only one choice to guarantee that your voice is heard without party interference. That choice is to vote Independent.

A few questions for you... What steps will you take to make the Upper Bruce Peninsula sustainable and resilient? How will you ensure that areas of natural significance will be protected? How will you ensure that the local St Edmunds Public School remains open? What action will you take to bring public transit to Tobermory?  What will you do to make necessary changes so that citizens in the Upper Bruce Peninsula have adequate local primary and emergency health care? I am looking forward to your reply demonstrating your commitment to the citizens and lands of the Upper Bruce Peninsula.

Most of the issues that you mention are tied together within the idea of greater local relevance and/or control over the direction of our region.

To be more specific, in regard to healthcare, the LIHN system must be reformed to be more locally relevant to the needs of Bruce-Grey citizens. This means shrinking the size of the LIHN areas and including more services in the LIHN model. This will increase coordination of services, eliminate overlap, and allow for a custom approach to local demographics. Combine this with an overall provincial focus on best practices, i.e.. in the area of medical records, and we have a formula for better efficiency. Better efficiency means less cuts and more relevant service to remote and rural areas such as Northern Bruce Peninsula.

The same principle applies to education and schools. Ontario must break away from one-size-fits-all formulas for school funding or we will continue to see the loss of rural schools such as St. Edmunds. I've been fighting for the survival of the Chesley high school, and would show the same commitment to Tobermory, but the long term solution lies in the Ministry of Education recognizing the unique needs of rural Ontario and relinquishing some control to local boards. These are reforms that I will seek to build consensus around if elected.

Regarding transportation, I have made the pursuit of a Regional Mobility Strategy a cornerstone of my campaign. Two primary areas stand out. First, the need for an increasing number of seniors to have access to services across Bruce-Grey and outside of the region; and second, the need for efficient movement of goods within the region primarily in relation to accessing local food. I think this is a critical component of a prosperous future in this region and I will eagerly seek funding for a pilot project of this nature.

Regarding areas of natural significance, I have always recognized that the protection of our natural environment always trumps short-term economic thinking. It is a healthy environment that enables all other quality of life. This means that I will always weigh development proposals and preservation proposals based on the long-term well-being of the region and its citizens.

Ultimately, resilience stems from all three areas of economic, ecological, and social health. As a society we are a long way from true resilience in any of these areas, and in fact our situation becomes more fragile by the day. The way forward locally is to identify the opportunities hiding behind the significant challenges. These opportunities are numerous and it is my commitment to build consensus in the Ontario legislature around locally relevant issues that will benefit Northern Bruce Peninsula and all of Bruce-Grey.

I'd like to vote for you again, but I don't know how much good you can do as an independent, especially if by some horrid trick of fate Dalton gets in again. I don't trust Hudak. So I'm in a bit of a bind. Like many rural Ontarians I'm not a happy camper. We have turbines going up on our road as I type. Most of us don't want them. Our council tries to fight them but they keep threatening them with law suits. If this can happen what protection do we have from these large companies that are taking over? It seems that we are now second class citizens with no say. I know you have ideas about municipal government but will you really be able to do anything about getting us back some power over our lives?  We are feeling pretty desperate. With turbines taking over our communities and a mega quarry going in just south of us we really can't afford to waste a vote. 

I need to know where you stand on the issues of wind turbines and the mega quarry. I realize that the quarry is not in our area but it is no longer a regional issue. It has now gone worldwide as a water issue. Without environmental assessments or health studies we have no way of stopping the Highlands Company from taking the 600 000 000 litters of water they pump out each day, out of the country. Environmental issues can be a pain to farmers but most of them are there for a reason, to protect us. At least with them we have some control. I don't think anyone should have the power to take that protection away from us without even consulting the public. Please reply.

Thanks for your past support.

Regarding my effectiveness as an Independent, it's important to understand that in a minority legislature (which it will almost certainly be) an independent MPP has a great amount of influence. 

There are two reasons for this. First, an independent MPP is free to support all good legislation and oppose all bad legislation as it relates to Bruce-Grey citizens. For example, I will throw my support in with the PC's to restore local renewable energy planning authority, without having to go along with some of the other nonsense coming from Mr. Hudak. The closer the minority the better, as it means that my (and likely the NDP) vote in the legislature can make a huge difference regardless of which party forms government. Second, an independent MPP has serious leverage in a minority legislature. When the governing party comes to me looking for support on a piece of legislation, I can make that support contingent upon other Bruce-Grey priorities being looked after as well.

My stand on the wind question is "Local control, local benefits". More specifically, restore local planning authority over ALL renewable energy project siting, and give priority access to the grid for community-based projects before multi-national corporate owned projects. Practically speaking this means that large wind farms would be stalled indefinitely, and community based projects like Meaford's plan for solar on municipal rooftops would get the green light.

Regarding the mega-quarry (it's really an open pit mine), it has now been forced to go through a full environmental assessment, which means much more study and disclosure of impacts, and more time to fight it. It is my hope that it will not proceed, as I don't believe the economic benefit is worth the trade-off in environmental damage.

I trust this answers your questions. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if these answers make good sense to you, please pass it along to your friends as my campaign is relying heavily upon citizen engagement and less on wasteful signage, etc.

I am doing a project in Civics class. My group and I are researching your party, but we couldn't find much information on your local sites. We are researching the following topics; tuition, health care, energy, natural resources, education, and taxes. If you could get back to us with your veiws on the previous topics it would be great.

 
Here's some information for your project and some links to where you can find more.

If elected as an Independent MPP, my job will be a little different than the other candidates'. There are two different ways in which I will be approaching each issue. One way is simply the support or oppose the legislation that comes forward form the governing party based on the needs of Bruce-Grey citizens. The other is to bring forward amendments to proposed legislation or offer my own. The answers to your questions reflect both of these approaches.

Health Care - The main issue here is getting access to care that is relevant to the local citizens. Currently we have healthcare planning that is done for areas that are far too large. We need to reform the Local Integrated Heathcare Networks (LIHNs) to be much smaller and therefore more responsive to local needs. We also need to take much of the money that is used in administration of the system, and put into front-line care.I also support more investment in health promotion that focuses on preventing disease. It is much cheaper to prevent than to cure disease.

Energy - We need to reform the Green Energy Act in several ways.Restore municipal planning authority over energy infrastructure, which the Act removed.Make sure that the benefits of renewable energy flow directly to the community hosting the project.Give priority access to the electricity grid to community-based projects.We must keep the Green Energy Act as it is bringing jobs and investment to Ontario, particularly in solar energy, which is our best technology for the future.We also need good energy conservation programs to help Ontarians save money and electricity.

Natural Resources - We always have to balance the economic and job benefits with the environmental risks when dealing with natural resources. The "mega-quarry" that is being proposed for just south of our region is an example of a project where the environmental impacts outweigh the economic benefits in my opinion. We need to make sure that all major resource developments go through rigorous environmental assessments so that the impacts are properly understood.

Education - Last year the Bluewater Board of Education budget was $192million. Of that, the board had spending discretion over just $2million. The rest is allocated by the Ministry of Education in Toronto. I believe that the local board of education needs to have much more spending discretion in order to keep our rural schools open and be able to offer programming that is relevant to Bluewater students. The needs of Bluewater students are different than those of urban students and the board needs freedom to direct the funding accordingly.

Taxes - When the HST came into use, the Ontario government gave up much control over provincial taxation to the federal government. This was a very bad move as it removes the ability of the Ontario government to make taxation policy responsive to the changing economics of the province. For example, we can add taxes to things we want to discourage and reduce taxes on things we want to encourage. We need to do what British Columbia did, and repeal the HST so that our government can do this without having to seek the permission of the federal government first.

Tuition - I have committed to supporting the Liberal's 30% tuition cut if they form the government. I believe that education is an investment, not an expense. The difference is that an investment brings returns in the future that are many times the money spent.

A) Why have all the urban centres in Grey Bruce shrunk over the last 20 years? Can you see what could be done to attract young immigrant families? 

B) What would be your approach if the Mega-quarry was proposed for your riding? 

C) Which two or three programs on CBC radio do you listen to with some regularity?

Here's some thoughts on your questions.

A) The lack of population growth in the region has much to do with the lack of quality local job opportunities for young people. Keeping our youth, or attracting families requires having good paying, satisfying work available.

Three areas stand out. First, our aging demographic presents both a challenge and an opportunity for our healthcare system. It means that we can build on the already robust healthcare industry in Bruce-Grey. In order to do this we need to reform the LIHN system to be more responsive to local needs (ie. shrink the LIHN area) and we need to channel the money that is wasted in the LIHN bureaucracy into front-line care, which in turn creates jobs.

Second, there are opportunities for good jobs in the energy sector, particularly solar. There are currently talks happening regarding the production of solar glass in Owen Sound for the domestic solar panel industry. We must keep (but reform) the Green Energy Act to ensure this kind of investment continues.

Third, an increasing number of young adults are getting involved in small-scale agriculture to supply the fast emerging demand for more local food. There are also opportunities in the related food processing and distribution sectors, but we must see some regulatory reform to realize these fully.In addition to this, expansion of programming at Georgian College would allow more young people to obtain post-secondary education here and hopefully stay.

B) The Mega-quarry is not a single riding issue as water tables cross riding boundaries. I pushed for a full environmental assessment for the quarry, which is now going to happen. I personally hope that the quarry does not go forward as I don't believe the economic benefit is worth the trade-off in environmental impact. I will continue to fight the quarry whether elected or not.

C) CBC is the only radio I listen to with any regularity as I appreciate the commercial free, reasonably well balanced programming. I often listen to Ontario Today with Rita Celli, As It Happens with Jeff Douglas and Carol Off, and Radio II Drive with Rich Terfry (I'm a Canadian music nut).

Keep in mind that If elected as an Independent MPP, my job will be a little different than the other candidates'. There are two different ways in which I will be approaching each issue. One way is simply the support or oppose the legislation that comes forward form the governing party based on the needs of Bruce-Grey citizens. The other is to bring forward amendments or new legislation at times when the governing party needs support to get their bills passed. This method provides leverage to get the priorities of Bruce-Grey citizens on the government's agenda.