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20% OFF 50%OFF Sign up online at www.connon.ca to receive our ENews including educational videos, gardening tips, and information on upcoming sales & events, and receive $20 OFF ANY LANDSCAPE DESIGN! HELPING YOU GROW: Hard-Goods 50%OFFM ON NO W! FALL MUMS ALL FALL BULBS 20%OFF20%OFF All Sizes and Colours Included! All Sizes and Colours Included! ON NOW! ! " ! # $ " War nra ty and C redit N to es d o not ap ply. Wall to Wall Nursery Stock including: %& ' ( ' ) * + ) , - . / 0 Waterdown Garden Centre .connon.ca SALES & PRODUCTION YARD GARDEN CENTRE BR AN TS T.TT Hours: Wed. Sept. 21 10am-6pm Monday-Friday 7am-6pm Saturday 7am-5pm Closed Sunday Garden Centre 383 Dundas St. E, Waterdown, ON Tel.: 905.689.4631 9 W ednesday, Septem ber 21, 2011 O A K V ILLE B EA V ER w w w .in sid eH A LTO N .co m by attempting to put things into perspective. Weve read a lot about doubling the debt and that is actually not true. The net debt to GDP has only increased by 25 per cent and considering we have been through one of the most difficult economic periods in history we are doing quite well, she said. In fact, we are helping by investing in business, investing in kids and invest- ing in healthcare. Naidoo-Harris also pointed out all parties are talking about balancing the budget by 2017, but said only the Liberal plan is realistic. The Liberal platform, she said, contains only 45 new initiatives while the Progressive Conservative platform has around 229 new initiatives and the NDP has more than 100 new initiatives. You have to ask your- self a question, said Naidoo-Harris. How are they going to pay for these promises if they are not going to take the money out of some- where? Spohr said the NDP has a fully costed, reasonable and affordable plan, which relies on the expansion of services and would be funded by a marginal tax increase for large corpora- tions. Funds would also be found, Spohr said, by reducing the wages earned by crown corporation and health and energy sector CEOs. Spohr called for the scrapping of the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), increased accountability through the use of more budget ombudsmen and the conducting of an expenditure management review to see where more savings can be found. Spohr had plenty to say when the topic of the gov- ernments role in providing affordable housing was dis- cussed. What we want to do is set attainable targets for increasing affordable hous- ing for the people who need it the most. We want to invest in new affordable housing and repair existing substandard housing because the waiting lists right now are huge, said Spohr. We also want to devel- op an Ontario Housing Plan that includes landlord licensing, zoning and bet- ter tenants rights. Chudleigh said getting good jobs for people is one important way to solve Ontarios affordable hous- ing issues. The fact that the new jobs being created in Ontario today are service jobs and part-time jobs, these are jobs that you dont buy a house on, you dont get married on, you dont build a family on, he said. Weve got to get back to those kinds of jobs that people have comfort with and which allow them to buy the big ticket items and allow them to get mar- ried and allow them to raise a family. Naidoo-Harris said she is committed to addressing the housing issue in Halton. The Liberal govern- ment, she said, has already taken steps to address this problem by increasing social assistance rates seven times, raising the mini- mum wage, and making it so that 90,000 low-income Ontario taxpayers no lon- ger pay Ontario personal income tax. There is a commit- ment to making sure that those who have not do have the ability to try and pick themselves up, said Naidoo-Harris. We are taking steps, but there is more work to do and I promise you I will be committed to this. New jobs wont pay the mortgage on a new home Continued from page 7