Rural Ontario deserves more

After being abandoned and forgotten for too many years, rural communities across the province are demanding change. They’re demanding a real plan for rural Ontario.

The Ontario Greens have a comprehensive plan that puts rural communities first:

Address housing affordability and homelessness by building at least 250,000 new affordable non-profit and co-op rental homes and 60,000 permanent supportive homes
Expand rural healthcare access by increasing funding for rural hospitals, recruiting more doctors, and providing equal pay for nurses, doctors and personal support workers
Support Ontario’s food and farming sector by establishing a Foodbelt to protect prime farmland and investing in local food hubs that benefit local farmers, supply chains, and businesses
Protect the places we love by reversing attacks on environmental protections and restoring the cuts to the Conservation Authorities that safeguard Ontario’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands
Launch a meaningful rural infrastructure fund and implement a $2 billion-a-year Climate Adaptation Fund to help municipalities make their infrastructure more resilient

While the government makes token announcements without addressing the fundamental challenges facing rural communities, the Ontario Greens are offering real solutions. We believe your postal code shouldn’t determine your access to healthcare, affordable housing, or economic opportunity.

Add Your Voice — Tell Minister Thompson that rural Ontario needs real investment, not just token gestures.

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Send a message to Minister Thompson

I am writing to urge you to support the Ontario Greens’ plan to put rural Ontario back on the map. For too long, rural communities have been treated like an afterthought. While your government spends billions on wasteful GTA projects like a mega-spa at Ontario Place and tunnels under the 401, our rural roads are crumbling and our local emergency rooms are understaffed or closing. The recently announced $20 million Rural Ontario Development Program is woefully inadequate compared to the billions being spent elsewhere. Rural Ontario deserves better than token gestures. I urge you to support a comprehensive plan that will: - Invest in Ontario-made power instead of sending our electricity dollars to American gas companies, creating thousands of good local jobs while lowering bills - Protect our farmland by establishing a Foodbelt to prevent developer sprawl and ensure food security and affordability - Address the housing crisis by building affordable non-profit and co-op housing and implementing vacancy control to stop “bad faith” renovictions - Expand healthcare access by increasing funding for rural hospitals and recruiting more healthcare professionals - Strengthen local conservation authorities to protect our communities from flooding and other climate impacts - Raise ODSP and OW rates to ensure no one in our communities is left behind as the cost of living climbs As Mike Schreiner stated at the ROMA conference: “For far too long, the provincial government has ignored the needs of rural Ontario. They’ve spent billions in the GTA while rural hospitals close, the housing crisis gets worse and rural communities struggle to keep roads and bridges maintained.” Our postal code shouldn’t determine our quality of life. It’s time to put rural Ontario back on the map with real investment, not just press releases and token gestures.

You can submit this letter as-is or change it to reflect your own priorities. Your comment will be forwarded with the subject line “Put rural Ontario back on the map”, including your name, email and postal code to Minister Thompson. You will also be added to the GPO mailing list but you can unsubscribe at any time.