MPP Harris responds to criticism of his record in office

A rally was held outside of the campaign office of Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris in Kitchener Saturday.

Members of local community groups raised concerns with MPP Mike Harris' record in office. 

“We are very concerned about the ongoing actions by the provincial government catering to developers and big business while so frequently not being in best public interest,” said rally organizer Kevin Thomason in a release. “It seems to reflect how misguided and out of touch so many actions from this provincial government have been over the past four years. We wanted to express our serious concerns about the Conservative government’s track record of destroying our environmental protections and ignoring climate change. We think it is time to send Harris packing by defeating him in the June 2 election,” he said. 

Harris responded to the criticism that he faced over the weekend where he spoke with demonstrators about the issues being raised. 

“We have to really have a constructive dialogue and I think that's the biggest thing for me,” said Harris. “We want to make changes here in the region, we want to see things happening for the betterment of the region. Being able to sit down and have conversations and figure out where we can meet in the middle is really something that I try and strive for and quite frankly think I've done a good job at in the last four years.” 

Harris felt it was strange that the organizers felt the need to hold a rally during the opening of his campaign office on Ira Needles Boulevard in Kitchener.

“I've met with the organizers of this group before. It's not like we haven't had a chance to do that. I found it was a little strange that they wanted to come and make their point on that day but listen, it's their prerogative to do so and all we do is ask that you be respectful and follow the rules,” said Harris. 

Some community groups represented at the rally included Grand River Environmental Network, Water Watchers, Citizens for Safe Ground Water, APT Environment, and the Waterloo Region Health Coalition. 

According to the organizers of the rally, it was to show concerns about recent provincial government actions where the groups believe the provincial government is “attacking” and “seeking to privatize healthcare” in the province, as well as “cutting important funding for education,” and the Conservative government's record on environmental issues.

“Wilmot citizens have been particularly concerned about how out of sync our provincial MPP Mike Harris is on the Hallman Gravel Pit proposal,” said Rory Farnan from Citizens for Safe Groundwater. “Mike Harris' staunch support of the pit is so out of touch with the thousands of citizens who have expressed serious concerns about ecological impacts, traffic, noise air quality and protecting our essential groundwater. Our local Wilmot Township Council voted unanimously against it, and our federal Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis joined with the community formally raising many concerns about the proposal and yet Mike has continuously advocated for it despite so many troubling issues.”

Harris responded to the accusations that he is “out of sync” with the Hallman Gravel Pit proposal.

“I've been very, very clear from the beginning. This has been a process that has taken up probably a better part of close to two years since the application or rumblings of the application was first brought forward. There is a very rigid and stringent process in place that takes political interference out of it,” he said. 

“This comes after much public consultation. Let's be clear, there's been tons of public consultation on this project as there should be with any other project that is being evaluated for a license here in the province. It is now going to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) which is a non-partial judicial body that will go ahead and look at the merits of the application, speak with staff from the municipality and region and of course the province. It has to work it's way through. If people can't respect that process then they really quite frankly don't have a place to be doing that,” he said.

Harris said that the provincial government has looked at ways to strengthen the Aggregate Resources Act.

“We've made provisions within the act for groups like these to be able to be official objectors at the Ontario Land Tribunal which they didn't have the ability to do before we amended this legislation. We're always looking at ways to strengthen and improve things from the provincial level. We certainly appreciate the input from all folks whether it be from Wilmot, whether it be from Woolwich or anywhere else across the province.”

Organizers say additional pop-up rallies will be planned across Waterloo Region and province during the election campaign.