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Oakville and Halton candidates compete for votesdeficit, Rodrigues went first.Continued from page 1In his statement Rodrigues said if Canada Provinces jurisdiction there was little Youngcontinued going down the path it is travel-could do.ling, it would soon be bankrupt. Halton Conservative candidate Lisa RaittRodrigues said this is largely because of said businesses are working to deal with thethe countrys vast number of public employ-air quality issue and she believes this workees and recommended significant cuts to the should continue.public sector.Oakville Liberal candidate Max KhanLaurin-Bowie said Canadians need to hold spoke about what he and the other memberstheir government to account for its $56 bil-of Oakvilles council have done to improve airlion deficit.quality.Thats the largest deficit our country has Im very proud to say that on council weseen it its history, $56 billion, she said.unanimously voted to pass the air qualityThe structural deficit that was put in bylaw. We also worked very, very hard withplace began in 2006. So, before we hit the different stakeholders including C4CA andrecession they began to increase our deficit we were able to work with the Province indespite successive surpluses from both the making sure the power plant didnt come toprevious Liberal governments.Oakville, said Khan.Laurin-Bowie said the Liberal Party is My concern is that the ConservativesPHOTOS BY GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER committed to a one per cent of GDP deficit in take the position they have been aggressivelyPOLtwo years.ITICAL TEAMMATES:Oakville Liberal candidate Max Khan (above) consults with dealing with climate change and air pollu-She also said there would be no new Halton Liberal candidate Connie Lauren-Bowie, while Oakville incumbent MP Terence Young tion. They walked away from the Kyotospending unless identified sources can be (below) shares a smile with Halton incumbent MP Lisa Raitt at the Oakville Chamber of Commerce agreement. Not only did they walk away fromfound for that spending.debate on Tuesday night.a very important environmental agreement,Khan said after the Mulroney era the they told the world that when Canada signs aLiberals not only eradicated the deficit they document we may or may not live up to it.inherited, but had 10 years of balanced bud-Khan said the Liberals would invest ingets.renewable energy and clean energy.Raitt called on the audience to remember Halton Liberal candidate Connie Laurin-Canada has just experienced the greatest Bowie said the environment vs. jobs choice,recession the country has seen since the promoted by the Conservative government,1930s and that the deficit that was taken on does not exist.needed to be taken on to keep Canadas Steering Canada towards more greeneconomy intact.energy projects will actually create jobs, sheWe accumulated a deficit, but we did it said.for a good reason and we did it in a targeted Halton Christian Heritage candidate Tonyway, she said.Rodrigues used his time to voice concernsLet me tell you something else. Were about how a dam in China is causing the axisalso going to pay it down and, in fact, were of the Earth to tilt.going to pay it down by 2014. We have a plan Oakville Green Party Candidate Andrewfor it, weve costed it out and were not going Ford, she said, could make such a change Oakville.Chlobowski said air pollution in Oakville isaround the country making promises about by producing cars that do not burn fossil Halton NDP candidate Pat Heroux calleddirectly connected to the issue of climatebuilding stadiums in Quc City or building fuels.for a halt to such local initiatives as runningchange.a high-speed rail system or building other Oakville NDP candidate James Ede point-a highway through the escarpment, whichIts all about using too much dirty ener-things that dont appear anywhere else in the ed out considerably more air pollution comes she said will result in more pollution.gy, he said.numbers.from vehicles than from industry.While the meeting paused occasionally toThe Green Party proposes all kinds of Young said the Liberals balanced their In our platform, we are offering signifi-give the audience a hockey playoffs update, itpolicies to fight global climate change andbudgets in the late '90s by cutting $25 billion cant new funding for public transit with an was mostly business as usual with the candi-this will obviously take care of the air pollu-out of health care and education with the additional cent of the existing gas tax, he dates answering numerous questions fromtion in Oakville and elsewhere.Health and Social Transfer.Halton Green Partsaid.the audience, which were read by the mod-y Candidate JudiThey also benefited from the GST, he I think this would go a long way to reduc-erator.Remigio said local changes must be made tosaid.ing the amount of pollution in our air in When it came time to discuss the nationalget rid of air pollution.15 Thursday, April 28, 2011 OAKVILLE BEAVER www.insideHALTON.com