During a Media Scrum on the 27th Feb Peter spoke on Caledonia, Long Term Care and the Federal Budget. Read the transcripts or listen to the audio here.

I think the question was: Is this extortion. The answer is yes, it?s extortion, when we?re talking about the Haudenosaunee, number one. Number two, let me ask a question: If somebody pitches a tent in my backyard, what do you think I?m going to do about it? I?m going to throw ?em right off of my backyard and if thinks he has a dispute with me over whether that backyard is mine, he can talk about it with me afterwards. Same thing goes for somebody who wants to charge a toll to get onto my property: I?m going to thrown him off there and not let him charge a toll and we can talk about it afterwards. That?s the problem: Mr. Bryant talks about one law for all Ontarians. There hasn?t been one law for all Ontarians in the two years of Caledonia and Caledonia is going into its third year in the next couple of days. It?s time that the government of Ontario got serious about this and every other issue and said, you know what? We have got to sit down and do something. This is illegal and it would not happen anywhere else.

So they shouldn?t be focusing on the developers, they should be focusing on this institute in the Six Nations?

I think absolutely. I think the developers have to be able to take care of themselves and I think if there is an illegal toll being charged - and it?s illegal until somebody determines who owns that land if it?s in dispute - then the developers don?t have to pay it and they deserve the appropriate police protection.

What do you think of Mr. Bryant saying that the developers should contact him and he?ll explain the law to them?

I think it?s nonsense. I think it?s for Mr. Bryant, as the representative of the government in charge of Aboriginal Affairs, to take action to protect those developers. They too are citizens of Ontario. If the Haudenosaunee think that they have a particular right to that property, I wouldn?t dispute that, but they, like the Six Nations occupying Caledonia, have to sit down and talk about it and not while they?re holding somebody hostage.

Are the police doing their job?

I don?t think that the police are doing their job, I think the police are doing what they?re being told to do.

Who?s telling them?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Well, if it?s not the police, you?re saying it comes from the government.

It?s got to be coming from somewhere. I can only speculate, you?re going to have to ask them that. But what I hear is what the rest of Ontarians hear: that there are two laws, one law for First Nations people and another law for the rest of us. That can?t continue to exist. That?s been our party?s position from the beginning, and frankly, if I were in charge, things would be different.

With the federal budget, the province here is saying it?s a missed opportunity, that now the province is going to have to pick up the slack to help manufacturers and other people struggling?

That is continued whining from the McGuinty Liberals. The McGuinty Liberals look for somebody to blame every step of the way. The reason manufacturing is suffering here is oh, what was left over from the Harris/Eves era. The reason manufacturing is suffering here is because of globalization. The reason manufacturing is suffering here is because we don?t have the appropriate tariffs to ensure we limit imports, there?s all kinds of reasons. They never have to do with a plan that has never been promulgated by the McGuinty government. If you want to get the feds to come to the table and develop a plan to save manufacturing, in the face of a province that is now being touted as the next have-not, then you have to sit down with your partner and you have to come to the table with that plan. It?s for the McGuinty government to take the bull by the horns, say this is what we want to do for manufacturing, please Mr. Flaherty, sit down with us, let?s do it together and let?s see what we can do. The question becomes, do Ontarians and the rest of the world want more Chevrolets? I don?t know the answer to that, but apparently not. That being the case, should we throw more money at making Chevrolets or should we help those workers re-train and should we use those production lines to do something else? Right now it?s more of the same from the McGuinty government: it?s not our fault.

Long Term Care

What do you make of the Health Minister talking about how he?s going to be trying the incontinence diaper in order to understand how long it should be?

Glad you asked the question. My mother is 94-years-old and she?s in a long term care facility in Ontario, which I guess makes my mother one of the lucky ones, because she actually is in a long-term care facility, unlike the thousands who can?t get in, number one. Number two, in order to care for her, although I happen to think that the facility she is in is a good one, my brother, my sister and I have to get together, put our hands in our pockets, and provide a full-time care worker seven days a week to augment her care. Fortunately, my family can afford to do it, other families can?t. And I?ve been in that home, and other homes, and people languish there. I?m not surprised at the problem with the diapers, but it?s only the tip of the iceberg. For a government that touted itself as the people who are going to create a quote ?revolution? in long-term care, it?s despicable.