For Immediate Release
March 19, 2007

Sterling calls for action now to help Smiths Falls - Redevelop the hospital, delay closure of Rideau Regional Centre

Queen's Park, Toronto - In the first day of the legislature since the shocking news that Hershey would be closing its Smiths Falls factory, Lanark-Carleton MPP Norm Sterling demanded of the Premier how he would help the town of Smiths Falls.

"On February 22, the 500 employees of the Hershey plant and all 9,200 residents of Smiths Falls were devastated to hear that the chocolate factory would be closing," said Mr. Sterling. "Smiths Falls has already suffered industrial layoffs and is facing the closure of the Rideau Regional Centre by 2009. With 1,500 residents facing layoffs, we not only need a solid plan for Smiths Falls' future, we need action now."

On March 6, Progressive Conservative leader John Tory visited the town and met with Mr. Sterling, Mayor Dennis Staples and Hershey employees and union representatives. Mr. Tory has urged Hershey's head office to reconsider this closure and find a way to continue to operate in Smiths Falls.

"Our first priority is to keep Hershey in Smiths Falls but while we are trying to convince Hershey to stay, there are steps the Premier can take now to offer hope for the town," said Mr. Sterling. "The Premier has the power to delay closure of the Rideau Regional Centre and move forward with the redevelopment of the Smiths Falls Hospital immediately."

In September 2004, then Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello announced the accelerated closure of the Rideau Regional Centre and promised to work with the town to develop a plan to deal with the economic impact. Today, as Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Minister Pupatello made the same promise.

"Little has come of the Minister's first promise," said Mr. Sterling. "We cannot afford to wait for another elusive plan, so I will continue to demand concrete action by the McGuinty government to help the people of Smiths Falls," said Mr. Sterling.

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For more information, please call Lanark-Carleton MPP Norm Sterling at: (416) 314-7900

HANSARD REPORT
Ontario Legislature
March 19, 2007, Question Period

Mr. Norman W. Sterling (Lanark-Carleton): My question is to the Premier. As the Premier knows, the people of Smiths Falls were rocked last month by an announcement of Hershey closing their plant sometime in 2008 or 2009. This, together with the accelerated closure of Rideau Regional Centre, will mean that more than 1,500 people will lose their jobs in a community of 9,200. You can imagine the effect on not only those people who have lost their jobs directly, but the many people who have lost their jobs indirectly who supply to these major employers.
I appreciate the work that you and some of your ministers have done on this file. Our leader John Tory and I met with the mayor and the Hershey employees and are urging Hershey to stay there in some form into the future. But if this doesn't work, what is your plan for Smiths Falls' future?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty (Premier, Minister of Research and Innovation): To the Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

Hon. Sandra Pupatello (Minister of Economic Development and Trade, minister responsible for women's issues): I think it's important to note that we have been working with the town of Smiths Falls, in particular the mayor and the leadership in this town, and we have brought the very best from my ministry and colleague ministries, all who have a part to play in the future of this town, and we believe that Smiths Falls does have a bright future. We will make sure that we work with them so they do have a very bright future. Let me say that first.
Second, let me say also that we are impressed with the leadership of Smiths Falls. They are prepared to reach out and work with us to put together a plan, because if plan B is that that plant will close, we need to go to what is next for Smiths Falls and what part we can play in all of that. That is the conversation that we're engaging in with them. We have the A team, which is working directly with this town, meeting on a regular basis. I want to tell you that we believe that these talks are very fruitful and that we will develop a very good action plan for the future of Smiths Falls.

Mr. Sterling: After the announcement of the accelerated closure of Rideau Regional Centre, the mayor and I and many others tried to work with this government to find some answers to replace those jobs, those over 800 public sector jobs. Little has been forthcoming from the government on that issue.
Later today, I'm going to introduce some petitions in the Legislature to ask you, the government, to delay the closing of Rideau Regional Centre and to give the final okay to the redevelopment of the Smiths Falls hospital. These people in Smiths Falls need a ray of hope for their future. This community is already suffering from a shortage of doctors, and a new hospital will help them attract not only the physicians but new investment to the community. Premier, will you commit to delaying the closure of Rideau Regional Centre and immediately starting the redevelopment of this hospital, which is ready to go to tender now?

Hon. Ms. Pupatello: I think it's clear to the people who are in Smiths Falls and whom we've been working with these last many years, ever since the announcement of the final closure of the Rideau Regional Centre: That plan is moving ahead. We do want to work with this community, and we have told this community that. We have developed a very good rapport with the people, who are drawing up their lists of exactly where they want to go. We believe that the people at the table have to be local leadership, and they are there. We're working with them now, going across our ministries, to see how we can be helpful.
The Ontario Realty Corp. is working diligently, in terms of releasing the site, to see what can happen on that site in the future. We believe that this community, through the benefit of the rural economic development fund, through my colleague at OMAFRA-they have made monies available over the past couple of years to draw up their plans around tourism and what they can bring to the region. We're working with this community hand in hand. I spent two hours with the leadership at Hershey in Pennsylvania on Friday. They made it very clear what their future is as a company.