Shawn Poirier is representing the Northern Ontario Party in Timiskaming-Cochrane.
Poirier says an issue he’s seen crop up is how the quick rise in the minimum wage has backfired.
He says he’s hearing from workers that even though they’re making more money, their hours have been cut.
Poirier says that same scenario hit his son who was working 15 hours a week before the minimum wage went up.
However Poirier says since then, his son’s hours have been cut to 12 hours a week and sometimes the weekly hours drop to 10.
Poirier says another big riding issue is the poor state of Highways 11 and 17.
Poirier says he’s been getting a lot of complaints about the condition of both major routes.
However he says the provincial government can’t tackle highway maintenance alone and says the federal government has to become more involved.
Poirier says because the roadways are not maintained as well as they should be, the effect is wide ranging.
He says some people cancel medical appointments because they don’t want to risk driving on a poorly maintained roadway.
A comment from Green Party candidate Casey Lalonde will be posted soon.
(Written By: Rocco Frangione)