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YORK SIMCOE: Q-and-A with PPC Candidate Michael Lotter

'A vaccine passport is going to lead to a two-tier society and is not necessary,' says PPC candidate
MichaelLotterphoto_submitted
Michael J. Lotter, People's Party of Canada candidate in the riding of York-Simcoe.

Editor's note: Ahead of the Sept. 20 Federal Election, BradfordToday has contacted all of the candidates in the York-Simcoe riding with five questions related to the local opioid crisis, COVID-19 vaccine passports, Truth and Reconcilliation Commission recommendations, climate change, and affordable housing. The following answers were received from PPC candidate, Michael Lotter. More candidate Q-and-A's can be found on our Canada Votes 2021 page.

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1. For the past several years, Barrie and Simcoe has had a devastating drug crisis, one of the worst in the province. How do you think the opioid problem should be addressed and what is your stance on the proposed supervised consumption site (SCS) here in the city?  

The use of drugs will occur with or without a safe consumption site. I am of the opinion drug users need help, whether it be to end their dependency on drugs, or be safe when they use. I support giving people the help they need, and this site,  properly supervised and protected is a step in that direction. More education needs to be available starting at an early age where drugs are involved. We cannot turn a blind eye as a community, or shame people who have fallen victim to their addiction. We need to stand up together and help fight it. We need to determine the root cause and invest in correcting these to prevent new drug addiction while helping those who are in need. 

Those dealing drugs need to face harsher penalties for their crimes, and our porous border where drugs enter the country needs to be reinforced! 

2. As we brace for a fourth wave of COVID-19 and a more aggressive delta variant, many are suggesting Canada should embrace a vaccine passport. What is your view on this? 

A vaccine passport is going to lead to a two-tier society and is not necessary. What about those who are unable to take the vaccine due to adverse reactions from previous vaccines, other health concerns? There are some religious groups who can’t take it due to faith-based reasons. Are we going to now tell people that freedom to follow your religious convictions is no longer valid? Do they simply not get to participate in society,  shunned through no fault of their own. 

The question we should ask is, if these vaccines the government has procured are as safe and effective as repeatedly stated, those who are vaccinated should have no fear of the unvaccinated. 

If the vaccines work as intended, a passport is not necessary because you are protected,  if they don’t work, a passport is not necessary because nobody is protected. I am not an ‘anti-vaxxer’, I am about a person’s freedom to choose what is injected into their body and their right to privacy in that regard. 

3. We are a rich country in many ways, but many Indigenous reserves still don't have clean drinking water. The tragedy of residential schools has ripped open the hurt and trauma many of our Indigenous families have felt for generations. Many of the Truth and Reconciliation  Commission recommendations remain unheeded. How would you address these issues and help heal these wounds? 

The history of Canada definitely has its negatives, and the loss of a child must truly be one of the most difficult for the community to deal with. Continued successive governments have done very little to nothing to deal with the fallout from an ill-conceived plan to so call ‘educate’ the indigenous population. 

I wish I could go back and save all the children who suffered needlessly under this process, but we need to honour them in their traditional way, not sully their memory with photo opportunities. We need to immediately look for those who were complicit in this and hold them accountable. Based on previous court rulings, the established compensation has been determined for these atrocities, however, the government keeps fighting in court to not make retribution. This needs to be done and dealt with so proper healing can begin. Dragging it through court only stirs up feelings of anger and loss instead of allowing the healing process between people and for families. 

4. Recently, a major scientific report warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. Scientists say it’s a "code red for humanity." What tangible ways will your party address climate change in both the  short- and long-term?

While nobody can deny the earth is in a heating cycle, scientifically agreed upon by experts in the field, none of the models have been able to accurately predict the future since the 1970s. 

Even Michael E. Mann, the author of the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ agrees with the cyclical nature of the heating and cooling periods of the earth. 

We believe that proper stewardship of the environment, prioritizing clean air, water, and soil for Canada is a good short-term goal, including bringing clean drinking water to remote First Nations. 

We will withdraw from the Paris accord as this serves only to maintain unrealistic greenhouse gas emissions targets. Canada produces less than two per cent of the world's CO2,  and some experts have agreed that a net-zero carbon footprint would do nothing to change the global CO2 levels given that some nations continue to increase their levels of emissions. 

Instead in the long term, we will stop subsidizing inefficient green technologies, and open the market up for private players to create viable long-term solutions. 

The Carbon tax does not scrub our atmosphere of greenhouse gases. We will abolish this tax and let provinces set reasonable solutions for their jurisdictions. 

5. Housing is a human right, but many people in the area are not able to afford a roof over their heads. The cost of living continues to rise while the price of housing and rent skyrockets well beyond affordability for the average person. What would your party do to address this? 

The age-old question of supply and demand. At first glance a case of economic advantage for homeowners over those who want to enter the housing market, if you want it, you will pay what is being asked and more.  

Canada simply doesn’t have enough housing completes per year (approximately 280,000) to sustain the number of people moving out of their parent's homes, new students, or new immigrants. Immigration accounts for 300,000 to 350,000 people per year looking for housing (in perspective that is 10 times the population of Bradford). Through no fault of their own, immigrants, students, and young adult's first time out of their parent’s homes are left fighting for housing, and each is outbidding the other. That artificially increases a home’s value.

Inflation is one of the other significant factors in housing. As the Bank of Canada prints more money,  your paycheck is devalued and so your purchasing power is reduced. The landlord's rent value is decreased and so needs to increase the rent to afford their needs/wants. After all, a landlord is in business to make money. 

A first step will be using the federal mandate with the Bank of Canada to set an inflation target of 0 per cent.  This will maintain the purchasing power of a paycheck, allowing more money to be saved towards homeownership, or keep rent pricing in control as landlords are maintaining the value of money paid in rent. In Ontario, there is already a rule preventing the increase of rent by more than a given percentage. A sustainable immigration policy reflective of our economic needs must be considered to ease the strain on available housing, preventing bid offers that artificially inflate the value of homes.