joe-gowing.ca www.joe-gowing.ca
@
Joe Gowing on Facebook 
Share this profile
Joe Gowing
Affordability
Poverty
Liberal's promise
"Permanently double the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits and index it to inflation so that Ontario’s most vulnerable are not left behind." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Education
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health & Healthcare
Drugs and addiction
Liberal's promises
"Provide wraparound support to help people recover from addictions, including rapidly building supportive housing units." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Act decisively and collaboratively with those on the frontline to bring deaths caused by opioid use down to zero in four years through expanded treatment, recovery and rehabilitation." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Family doctors and primary care
Liberal's promises
"Give every person in Ontario access to a family doctor by attracting, recruiting, retaining and integrating 3,100 family doctors by 2029." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Create two new medical schools and expand capacity in existing medical schools, doubling the number of medical school spots and residency positions." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Deliver team-based care with evening and weekend appointments, integrated home care for seniors, and accessible mental health services for children, youth and teenagers." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Accelerate the process to integrate at least 1,200 qualified and experienced internationally trained doctors over the next four years through Practice Ready Ontario." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Eliminate fax machines, enhance virtual care, introduce centralized referral systems with patient portals and implement interoperable electronic medical records to let doctors and other healthcare professionals focus on patients instead of paperwork." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Incentivize family doctors to serve in rural and northern communities and mentor the next generation to prevent future shortages." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Francophone health
Liberal's promise
"Develop a Francophone Healthcare Strategy to ensure Franco-Ontarians are able to access care in their first language." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health administration and privatisation
Liberal's promise
"Investigate Ford’s privatization plans, including a full review of Health Minister Sylvia Jones’ mandate letters and audit how Ontario is using the more than $20 billion in federal health transfers it receives every year." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health staffing
Liberal's promises
"Help hospitals hire and retain the staff they need by paying nurses, PSWs and other supportive healthcare workers a living wage and providing them with additional training and professional development opportunities to stay in the public system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Help hospitals hire and retain the staff they need by paying nurses, PSWs and other supportive healthcare workers a living wage and providing them with additional training and professional development opportunities to stay in the public system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Eliminate wage discrepancy across the system, regardless of whether you work for a hospital, in-home care or in long-term care." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Crackdown on Ford’s for-profit healthcare by regulating temporary nursing agencies." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Offer a $150,000 bonus to patriotic nurses and doctors who are currently practicing in the U.S. but want to come home and support our publicly-funded healthcare system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Long-term care
Liberal's promises
"Repeal the coercive Bill 7 and ensure LTCs are held accountable for mismanagement, non-compliance, and neglect of direct care under a four-hour minimum standard per resident, per day." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Repeal the coercive Bill 7 and ensure LTCs are held accountable for mismanagement, non-compliance, and neglect of direct care under a four-hour minimum standard per resident, per day." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Mental health
Liberal's promise
"Introduce universal mental healthcare under OHIP by expanding the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program, covering conditions like anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, hiring more social workers, and defining standards and coverage so that all people in Ontario have a basic form of coverage they can count on." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Seniors' health and wellbeing
Liberal's promises
"Guarantee needs-based home care through Family Health Teams, boosting annual home care funding by 25%." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Help seniors age at home gracefully by creating a Seniors’ Home Care Tax Credit, saving up to 25% of up to $10,000 in medical expenses a year." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Housing & Homelessness
Home construction and supply
Liberal's promises
"Scrapping Development Charges on new housing, cutting costs by as much as $170,000 on each new family-sized home." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Introducing the Better Communities Fund to help municipalities cover infrastructure costs." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Home purchases and ownership
Liberal's promise
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Jobs, Businesses, & Labour
Inter-provincial business and trade
Liberal's promise
"Work with other provinces to eliminate nonsensical interprovincial trade barriers by adopting a policy of mutual recognition of skills and regulated professions and building a truly Team Canada approach to growth and diversification." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Labour protections
Liberal's promise
"Negotiate in good faith and eliminate the practice of using the notwithstanding clause to trample on workers’ rights." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Poverty
Liberal's promise
"Permanently double the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits and index it to inflation so that Ontario’s most vulnerable are not left behind." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Startups and small businesses
Liberal's promise
"Launch an Ontario Growth Strategy to ensure Ontario becomes a competitive place to attract talent, set up and grow a business, afford fixed costs such as clean energy and rent, and have best-in-class consumer protections." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trump's Tariffs
Liberal's promises
"Backstop Ontario businesses with a new Fight Tariffs Fund that gives them access to lower-than-market interest rates (government rates)." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Ensure Ontario taxpayer dollars support local businesses and jobs by excluding American companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink from procurement." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Youth unemployment
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Society & Government
Government favouritism and conflicts of interest
Liberal's promise
""Lead an across-government effort to spend taxpayers’ money wisely and invest the savings back into economic stimulus and health care.
Investigate all of Doug Ford’s giveaways, handouts, and sweetheart deals for his rich friends, including the:
$1.9 billion spent on speeding up the sale of booze by multinational corporations, big grocers, and foreign retail giants
$100 million deal with Elon Musk (noted Donald Trump insider) and Starlink Snap closure of the Ontario Science Centre on land primed for development
$2 billion sell-off of Ontario Place to a foreign-owned spa
Sweetheart deal to open ServiceOntario outlets in private American-owned stores $8 billion Greenbelt giveaway to his friends and donors, an issue that is currently being investigated by the RCMP
Dozens of crony patronage appointments at public institutions like the LCBO, Ontario Power Generation, the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee and more
MZO’s Doug Ford gave to his rich buddies"
— Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Infrastructure
Liberal's promise
Biography
Joe is a former Trustee for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. An active community volunteer, Joe currently serves as President of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 126, a role which has given him the opportunity to help many seniors and Veterans in our community. He is also a passionate advocate for greater housing accessibility and affordability for all.
Joe has been in the financial industry for over 23 years. With that experience, he believes our government needs to be fiscally responsible while meeting the needs of our people. He believes we need to strike a balance by investing in the right policies and not wasting taxpayers money.
Joe lives in Forest Heights with his wife and two stepdaughters.
Reason for running
My background in Finance will help keep our government on task and find the balance between investments and not over spending. I believe we need to take care of those that need it but being fiscally responsible.
Why I'm running and what I will do for Kitchener-Conestoga.
I will be accessible to anyone in our riding regardless of which politic stripe they come from. Because if elected I represent all of Kitchener-Conestoga not just the people who supported and voted for me like we currently see now.
What I would like to do first and foremost is Listen! Listen to the true issues we face in our riding. Which I have been, the land assembly is one issue I'm hearing, and I will address that in your next section, after that It's healthcare, cost of living, housing, and education. As a party we have made it our priority to get the basics done right. Which means investing in all the above issues. Making sure that everyone has a family doctor. Especially in the rural and northern areas of the province. We will incentivise Doctors and Nurses that are Canadians working outside our country to come back and work here. We will increase the number of residency programs so that we can train more doctors at one time. We will be building a third hospital in Waterloo Region to help with the wait times and back log of surgeries. In our riding alone there is 15,390 people without a family doctor. That is unacceptable. Deliver team-based care with evening and weekend support, integrated home care for seniors, and accessible mental health services for youth.
On the housing issues, my background is in Finance, and I have been a Mortgage Specialist for many years. I have seen the types of homes being built across the Region. They are not affordable to anyone that is either a first-time home buyer or anyone who is a regular home buyer. The lowest ticket price on one of these homes is $950,000, That is no upgrades just the basics. That is not affordable. When WWII ended the government at the time brought in, "The Veterans' Land Act" which enabled the government to build smaller single-family homes quickly and affordably. There are other types of housing that we could look at as well. That is just one of many ways we can make housing affordable.
Education, As a former Trustee I know all too well what the PC government has or should I say hasn't done to maintain our schools let alone higher the help that each student needs. We need to invest in our children's education because it will not only lift some (like me) out of poverty and give them a better life, but it will also help grow our economy.
Land grab, I am opposed to the site that our government is trying to take. I am opposed to the manner in which this whole process has taken place. If elected I will push to restart the process and look at alternative sites (which should have been considered), I will make sure that ALL elected officials that have been silenced under an NDA gets their voices back by lifting the NDAs and releasing them of their legal troubles. That way they can do their job and communicate with the people that elected them.
Tariffs, we’re going to stand behind every worker, every farmer, every family in this province until this crisis is over and these unjust tariffs are withdrawn. I want to be very clear that we (Ontario Liberals) are fully behind a coordinated response to fight back against Trump. That includes preparing Ontario for economic resilience by ensuring businesses and workers have what they need to fight back. At the same time, we have to start getting the basics right in this province. We have a plan to cut your taxes, lower the cost of housing, eliminate HST on hydro/heating and make life more affordable. If people can’t count on health care, afford housing or can’t afford groceries – this fight will be so much harder.
Cost of living: Lower the personal income tax rate for middle class families by 22% (from 9.15% to 7.15%) This will benefit almost half of all taxpayers in Ontario. Eliminate the 8% provincial component of HST on hydro and home heating bills. Currently Ontario families pay about $2,600/year, this would save an average of $200 annually.
joe-gowing.ca www.joe-gowing.ca