Ontario Hansard - 17-February2010

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It's a real pleasure to be able to engage in this debate today on pension reform. Let me say at the outset-I just listened to the member from Ottawa Centre; he knows I have tremendous respect for him. I will make two points.

With the Nortel top-up, it was only when a by-election was called in Ottawa West-Nepean that the Liberal government decided it was going to assist pensioners who I have personally met with and who my colleague from Carleton-Mississippi Mills has personally met with. What bothers me is, I had some of these pensioners come to my office and to Norm's office with tears in their eyes because they had no idea how they were going to live out their retirement. What bothers me the most is that this Liberal government strung these seniors along until Bob Chiarelli decided he wanted to recycle himself and come back to the Ontario Legislature. By the way, he's going to have a fight on his hands if he thinks it's going to be an easy trip here. But the reality is, there could be nothing more callous and disappointing from a government that only decides to act when there is a by-election on, as we saw in Toronto Centre.

I want to make another point on the HST. How does this government think they're helping seniors when they are going to tax mutual fund expense ratios, when they are going to tax estate planning and when they are going to start taxing funerals? I don't know how they think they can be on the side of anyone with that terrible HST.

What we've seen here is a government that only acts when they think they can buy a vote and that likes to target people and then pretend they're working for them. I can tell you and I can assure you that Tim Hudak, the PC caucus and our finance critic, Norm Miller, are going to look at this bill, and we are going to ensure Ontarians have their say, because they won't-