Constituency office an ‘action centre’ to new MPP
Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith is soon to open an office in Peterborough, he says – but don’t call it a constituency office.
When it opens, Smith will refer to his office – in the plaza on Water St. at Marina Blvd. – as the Action Centre.
That’s Smith’s own coinage. He wants to call it that, for one thing, because people don’t refer to themselves as constituents.
Furthermore, he says that when people visit his office “they’re looking for some sort of action to be taken.”
He said Wednesday he’s not sure when the Action Centre will be open: he’s awaiting a building permit to allow workers to do about three days of construction on the interior to ensure washroom accessibility.
In the meantime those who’d like to contact him can leave a message on his phone line, which is monitored: 705-742-3777 (the same number for the offices of former MPP Jeff Leal).
In an interview Wednesday, Smith covered other topics: marijuana, for instance.
He said he likes the Progressive Conservative government’s deci-
sion to not open 150 governmentrun bricks-and-mortar stores selling recreational cannabis after all – as the former Liberal government had planned.
Instead, the government plans to allow private entrepreneurs to run cannabis stores under tight government regulation.
And if municipalities don’t want a pot shop in their boundaries, they are free to reject it. Smith said that’s the correct approach.
“Those who don’t want it sold in their community don’t have to have it sold in their community,” he said.
Next topic: cancellation of the basic income guarantee pilot project.
That $150-million project was cancelled earlier this month by the government; it had been giving 4,000 low-income people in Lindsay, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Hamilton a basic income.
This week, the local board of health called on the provincial government to finish the pilot project if only to collect valuable data showing a link between poverty and poor health, but Smith said he doubts that data would have ever come. “It wasn’t going to get the information that we needed,” he said.
Smith also said giving a basic income to people allows them to make a “lifestyle” out of collecting government assistance.
“So do you continue putting money into a flawed process? Or do you pause, get ready and go at it again?”
And what about those news conferences where staffers have been applauding loudly, apparently to drown out reporters’ questions?
Smith said the matter’s been “oversimplified”: the clappers were interns, he said. He calls it a case of “enthusiastic youth.”
Not that he sees anything wrong with limiting the number of questions being asked in media scrums (reporters have been concerned that the entire press corps gets a total of five questions before the clapping starts).
In the scrums Smith has witnessed at Queen’s Park, he said reporters often asked the same question phrased differently – meanwhile, pressing business awaits MPPs in the House.
“Time is a commodity that is limited,” Smith said.
What about Ontario News
Now, the taxpayer-funded, newsstyle videoclips broadcast on social media to discuss the government’s agenda?
Smith calls it “a communications tool” that their caucus uses to reach people all across Ontario. He points out it is funded with money meant for research, promotion and advertising.