He’s Farming False Claims - Facts Still Matter in Ontario

Patrick Brown claimed: “Cap-and-trade is hurting rural Ontario as well.”

Fact: Patrick Brown’s carbon tax – which he’s promised to introduce but rarely talks about now – would cost more but do less.

Patrick Brown claimed: “I want to create an environment where businesses, businesses like your family farms can grow again invest again and hire again.”

Fact: Not only are jobs being created in Ontario at a record pace, but we just lowered the small business tax rate meaning that the combined corporate tax rate in Ontario is among the lowest in the G7. Brown failed to mention that.

Patrick Brown claimed: They spent “$200,000 on a giant rubber duck…”

Fact: If one thing has been made clear over his two years in office, it’s that Patrick Brown does not support local tourism. He continues to speak out against a project that had an economic impact of over $7 million. The economic boost for local economies has shown that our investments are effective and critically important for our tourism sector. We also know that for every dollar we spend, it triggers about $20 worth of ancillary investments, and we know that that’s important. Over 750,000 people attended the Redpath Waterfront Festival to see the rubber duck and area businesses reported record sales over that Canada Day weekend bringing huge benefits to the local economy.

(Source: http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/what-the-duck-the-true-economic-impact-of-the-worlds-largest-rubber-duck-650618893.html)

Patrick Brown claimed: “…Or part of a bridge in Pickering, they actually built it upside down…”

Fact: Patrick Brown’s regular stump speech fib – once again, the Pickering Bridge was not built upside down and the company was terminated for their delays and overall poor performance.

(Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/12/04/pickering-pedestrian-bridge-ran-into-trouble-early-on.html, Ministry of Transportation)

Patrick Brown claimed: “So that would take [minimum wage] from where it is on July 1^st and go 25 cents a year for the following four years.”

Fact: To do this, Patrick Brown and the Conservatives would need to introduce legislation that would roll-back a $15 minimum wage coming into effect in 2019. They also voted against the minimum wage increase today.

(Source: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2017/11/20/time-for-ontarios-conservatives-to-spell-out-where-they-stand-editorial.html)

Patrick Brown claimed: “They’re making it more and more expensive to be a farmer.”

Fact: Patrick Brown voted against a 25% on average reduction to hydro bills for as many as half a million small businesses and farms.

(Source: http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=4875&detailPage=bills_detail_debates)

Patrick Brown claimed: “We’ve now seen over 700 schools closed around Ontario.”

Fact: Our recent budget, which Patrick Brown proudly voted against, invests $16 billion over 10 years to build 95 new schools and renovate 54 existing ones. This will be on top of the 810 new schools we’ve already build and the 780 school additions we’ve funded.

(Source: http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2017/ch4b.html#b12, http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/house-proceedings/house_detail.do?locale=en&Date=2017-5-17&detailPage=/house-proceedings/votes-and-proceedings/files_html/084_May_17_2017_Votes.htm#tidyout)

Patrick Brown claimed: “The Wynne Liberals cut the agriculture budget this year by $47.1-million.”

Fact: This is completely false. In 2016/17, $915M was set aside for OMAFRA and in 2017/18 over $1B was set aside which is an increase of $111M.

(Source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/expenditure-estimates-ministry-agriculture-food-and-rural-affairs-2017-18#section-0)