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Huron-Bruce is a busy place, and MPP Lisa Thompson is ready to take on the issues as she officially opened two constituency offices yesterday (Feb. 1) - one in Kincardine and the other in Blyth.

"2011 was a whole year of new things for me," said Thompson, as she welcomed staff, supporters and the media to her new office at 807 Queen Street, Unit 2, in downtown Kincardine.

From her nomination as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Huron-Bruce, and renovating an old farmhouse, to the election, moving into that farmhouse and heading to Queen's Park as the new Huron-Bruce MPP, it's been an event-filled year.

"I have a great team, led by my constituency assistant Lynne DiCocco," said Thompson. "Now, the real work gets started, with our sleeves rolled up and our hands getting dirty."

Thompson, who is deputy energy critic, plans to bring several of her caucus colleagues to Huron-Bruce, to tour the area, just as she did with PC energy critic Vic Fedeli over the past two days.

"People have lost confidence in the current (Liberal) government," she said. "As deputy energy critic, I want to see us start affecting policy. We're ready to govern. We have the volunteer base and we now have these two constituency offices open.

DiCocco said the office has been busy but the goal is to hear from the people of the riding.

"I'm not an MPP who sits around and waits for things to come to me," said Thompson. "I'm out driving the agenda. Today, we are holding an open house here at the new office for an hour. Then, we'll open the Blyth office this afternoon."

Besides DiCocco, the staff includes legislative intern Lauren Hanna, and executive assistant Ashley Hammill.

Thompson said she chose Kincardine and Blyth for her constituency offices because they are good locations for Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb to use as well.

"In dialogue with Lobb, we agreed that he could use these offices for meetings with constituents, and I could use his in Port Elgin and Goderich," she said. "It's an efficient and effective use of office space."

She added that Kincardine continues to boom, and Blyth needed the economic driver that locating an office there would provide. "It's important that I 'walk the talk,' and my background is in rural economic development."

Thompson is also considering satellite opportunities, such as holding meetings once a month in various other locations, such as Walkerton.

When asked about the joint review panel which has just been appointed regarding the Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) at the Bruce Nuclear site, Thompson said her concern is that people understand this project is different than the proposed DGR for spent nuclear fuel.

"We do have three or four municipalities in Bruce County that have expressed an interest in hosting the used-fuel DGR," she said, emphasizing that this joint review panel is examining the proposed low- and intermediate-level DGR to be located in the Municipality of Kincardine.

"The reason these municipalities are agreeing to host a DGR and considering the high-level DGR shows their confidence in Bruce Power," said Thompson. "There are also seven municipalities in Saskatchewan, and three in northern Ontario that are interested in the used-fuel DGR."

She encouraged people to do their homework. "We're here to be a conduit, to ensure people are well-educated about these projects," she said. "My position is that the community has to be willing to host a DGR. The community must be engaged in the process, and public acceptance is a major criterion."

As for continuous complaints about industrial wind turbines, Thompson said that 80 per cent of the visits and phone calls at her constituency office over Christmas, were about high hydro bills.

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Wednesday, February 01, 2012