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HomeNewsFedeli responds to comments about his absence from northern highways vote

Fedeli responds to comments about his absence from northern highways vote

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli has responded to Mushkegowuk-James Bay MPP Guy Bourgoin’s tweet stating he was absent from a vote on snow removal for northern highways in legislature.

“The fact that we weren’t there, that’s very nasty of the NDP,” Fedeli stated. “The parliamentary procedure is you don’t talk who is not in legislature and there is a reason for that. I’m a cabinet minister, we have three northern cabinet ministers and most people would be thrilled that we have three northern cabinet ministers, but we have duties to perform all across Ontario.”

“The three of us were out of legislature the whole day performing duties. I was in three different cities at two different functions with the Premier that day. That’s why our standing orders are you don’t discuss who is there or not. I can tell you how many times Andrea Horwath is not in session, but that’s not a very nice thing to do.”

The other two northern ministers who were absent were Greg Rickford, the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines and the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, and Ross Romano, the Minister of Colleges and Universities.

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“We did not skip the vote,” Fedeli explained. “We weren’t there for the whole day. I will be away for the next 10 days in India, and I am going to miss many votes while I am there but I am not abrogating my duties. I am doing the duty of the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.”

The vote was over a bill that Bourgoin introduced and said would make snow removal quicker on northern highways such as 11 and 17. The bill’s goal was to treat the highways as a 400 series highway, with snow removal to be done within eight hours of the snowfall. Ultimately, on November 7, it was defeated 59-38.

“Bill 125, Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer Act is nothing but common sense,” Bourgoin commented at the time. “Too many Northern Ontarians have lost their lives and suffered life-altering injuries driving on poorly maintained routes in the winter.”

Bourgoin claimed that drivers in the north are far more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than in the south.

“We did vote for bills to make highways safer,” Fedeli said. “It was our party that brought the whole highway issue forward years ago when we discovered that the previous government took $36 million out of the system to save money, and right now we are spending $40 million more, so we are actually putting more money into the northern highways than the Liberals.”

As for what the NDP wanted with the bill, Fedeli says they are already exceeding what was proposed.

“The specifics of the bill are, they were advocating for eight hours to bare highways. If they had done even five seconds of research before looking for a headline, they would have realized that on average we are achieving seven hours. What we are doing today is far better than what they’re asking for. Why would we support a bill that would drive us backward?”

Fedeli claims that the vote and use of social media was just a tactic to gain publicity.

“It was all about gaining headlines, it was all about knowing we weren’t going to be there because we were out supporting the Fall Economic statement as that is our job as ministers. They just look for nasty headlines because they have no plan of their own and it is very disappointing.”

“The highways are far safer today than when the Liberals were in power because we brought this forward,” Fedeli explained. “So I say to the people who were listening to the NDP headlines, dig one inch deeper for the truth and the truth is what they were asking for is worse than what we have today.

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