The Candidates Speak
Jamie West, NDP, Sudbury
Shore Report provincial election special
Sudbury candidate, Jamie West. image courtesy Jamie West’s Facebook.
One senses that Sudbury MPP Jamie West is perfectly happy to do a bit of door knocking early on a Saturday, even in sub-zero temperatures, especially if it means he gets a chance to chat with constituents and hear what they’re looking for.
First elected to his post in 2018, West sits in the provincial legislature for the official opposition New Democratic Party as the Critic for Labour, Training and Skills Development. Given his work background in mining, construction and workplace safety, and his education from both Cambrian College and Laurentian University, he seems well-placed for the job.
Shore Report borrowed Jamie West away from his canvassing for a few minutes this weekend, as he warmed up in his car with a coffee.
Sudbury riding image courtesy Elections Ontario
Shore Report:
What do you see as the most important issue right now for your constituents in Sudbury, and in Northern Ontario more broadly?
Jamie West:
I would say number one — and this was the same in 2022 — is affordability. People are just feeling like they can’t afford to make ends meet. For the last eight years, in fact, more people who are working are going to food banks. And even people who are a bit more affluent, they’ll talk to me and say it’s tight for them but they don’t know how their neighbours do it.
Shore Report:
Is housing a part of the problem?
Jamie West:
Yeah, the top things I hear from people… number one is making ends meet, and the second one is housing. Basically, people feel like the majority of their income goes toward paying rent. And younger people don’t see owning a house as even a possibility in the future. That idea of being able to rent, and save towards a down payment for a house, is simply impossible now. There’s no such thing as a starter house anymore.
Shore Report:
Is this election even necessary? How do you feel about the election call itself?
Jamie West:
I’ll be honest; I’m frustrated.
Doug Ford has a massive majority from 2022. He keeps saying he needs a mandate to deal with Donald Trump. But the reality is all parties — Liberals, Greens, New Democrats — we’ve all said let’s work together; let’s get back to work right now to figure out how we can protect Ontario’s jobs. Even if the parties didn’t agree, Ford could just force through legislation.
If you’ve been following the news politically, Ford’s been fishing for a reason to call an election since last spring. He’s desperate to have his election before Trudeau, because he’s been blaming Justin Trudeau for our issues with health care and our issues with schools. Everything that’s actually a provincial responsibility has now become a federal problem. Finally, he decided to hitch his pony to Donald Trump.
But I don’t think Donald Trump knows who Doug Ford is, and I don’t think he cares who he is.
He talks about needing a mandate. Look, there’s that luxury spa they’re building at Ontario Place that’s going to cost every household four-hundred bucks. Nobody asked for that. There was no mandate for that in the last election. It’s just his pet project.
I’ve been hearing this at the doors from people. They say, you know, we’re spending almost $200 million for an election we don’t need, at a time when we should be sitting around the table figuring out how to protect people’s jobs. Doug Ford has essentially resigned from his job for the thirty days of the election, and that means we can’t do any work until the election ends. Trump has talked about imposing tariffs on Tuesday? We’re going to be sitting on our hands for a month, instead of working together on this.
The silver lining is hopefully Doug Ford loses, and we form the new government.
Shore Report:
Speaking of pet projects… how do you feel about the massive disparity between spending on highways in Southern Ontario compared to the north?
Jamie West:
It’s a very frustrating experience. An independent report says the Bradford Bypass is going to save about seven minutes, but it’s going to cost a tonne of money. I don’t represent that area; I’m not arguing against or for it. But I do drive up and down Hwy 69. I’ve gone to funerals of people who have died in crashes where those sixty-eight kilometers have not been completed.
Every election, they promise they’re going to do it. In 2018, when I was first elected, they promised they were going to do it. Not an inch. If you saw any construction, that was just the end of the contracts that were in place before the Conservatives were elected.
In 2022, we’re gonna get it done again. Not an inch!
And then coincidentally just before this election there was some sort of an announcement. I’ve told the Premier, you know, I know a guy with a bulldozer; I’ll take the photo myself if you get it done. But this idea of dangling a carrot in front of people during an election, and making no movement, is really frustrating.
Shore Report:
You’re a Laurentian grad. How do you feel about the way the government is handling that financial crisis?
Jamie West:
It’s been a mess from day one.
I grew up in the Donovan — if you know Sudbury, it’s like a working-class area — and so I know I wouldn’t have been able to go to post-secondary if it wasn’t in Sudbury. So, I try to do everything I can to make sure Laurentian is successful.
I have to say, the Conservatives were asleep at the switch when the CCAA (Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act) process started. And, you know, we’re down to the wire. People don’t know what the future is for Laurentian University.
I don’t know if they don’t understand specifically how important and how different post-secondary education is in Northern Ontario, and the access it provides to people in the north, but if you want to ensure that people are able to get those jobs in the future, you really have to incubate and protect these universities.
Ontario has the lowest provincial funding of all the provinces and territories. We rely heavily on international students to subsidize what the province fails to pay for. And all of these institutions are on the brink. If you want our kids to be successful, you have to fund these properly.
Shore Report:
What issues have we missed?
Jamie West:
Elementary and secondary education funding. Depending on where you live, funding (if you tie it to inflation) has been cut by about $1,000 to $1,500 per student. Which is outrageous. We should be making record investments so we can ensure the success of our students.
And the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) — they would like to double the number of students they have. You know how difficult it is to get doctors in Northern Ontario, and NOSM’s been excellent at that. But they can’t get the province to commit to long-term funding.
If you want to attract somebody who’s in family medicine to come to Northern Ontario and teach people to become family medicine doctors, and you say we can only really commit to three years of funding… that person’s not going to move their family to Northern Ontario. They need to know it’s going to be a long-term commitment.
I don’t see that Doug Ford sees that as a priority. The priority for this government has always been whatever is best for Doug Ford and his wealthy investors. Regular folks are left behind.
Thanks to MPP West. Shore Report is committed to speaking with all candidates for the four North Shore ridings in the February 27th provincial election.