Sault Ste. Marie — Senior staff in NDP leader Horwath’s office have accidently sent an email to provincial media admitting that the Liberal plan to decrease auto insurance rates is working, despite recent comments made by local NDP candidate Celia Ross. This recent NDP admission once again illustrates that Horwath’s reasoning for calling a costly and premature provincial election is disingenuous.
“The Financial Services Commissioner of Ontario confirmed in April that on average, auto insurance rates in Ontario have decreased by 6% and I am confident that our comprehensive plan is on track to decrease rates by 15%,” said David Orazietti, Liberal candidate for Sault Ste. Marie. “It is unfortunate that the NDP forced a costly election, given that the steps we are taking are working to reduce auto insurance rates.”
On Friday, provincial NDP staff accidently emailed internal briefing notes to media outlets describing that they cannot refute the truth that progress has been made in decreasing auto insurance rates. More specifically, the internal NDP briefing note admitted that NDP candidates “cannot truthfully say that [the Liberals] have broken a promise” on decreasing auto rates in Ontario.
In a similar incident, the NDP candidate from Halton recently tweeted: “Just got my latest car ins payment update + I’m paying $22 less a month! Supporting the #NDP is incredibly selfish of me.”
Despite the provincial NDP’s claim that they triggered a costly election in order to lower auto insurance rates, the reality is that Horwath’s decision has actually jeopardized the government’s work in legitimately reducing insurance premiums even further. For example, Horwath’s NDP rejected important legislation that would have decreased rates by 15% by August 2015.
In addition, it is important for Sault residents to know that a Private Member’s Bill introduced by NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh from Brampton would have increased auto insurance rates in Sault Ste. Marie by as much as 30% in order to subsidize premiums paid by drivers in the Greater Toronto Area.
The NDP have also been misleading about the appointment of a Financial Accountability Officer. The NDP claim that this costly election was required in order to follow through on filling this important oversight position when, in fact, the government has tried twice to hire qualified candidates but the NDP has continually stalled the process by blocking both candidates in Committee.
