Warning that the average driver in the Greater Toronto Area will be paying nearly 14 per cent more for auto insurance by the end of the year, NDP MPP Michael Prue today urged the McGuinty Liberals to stop caving in to every demand of the private auto insurance industry and draw the line on rate increases.

Hamilton East—Stoney Creek NDP MPP Paul Miller is demanding to know why the McGuinty Liberals denied Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP) funding to Hamilton’s flood victims.

“The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has the final say about who receives disaster relief funding and with vague ODRAP guidelines for municipalities to follow, the process is a crap shoot process,” said Miller.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the McGuinty government is hurting cyclists with an unfair sales tax grab on bicycles and related safety equipment.

“The McGuinty government should do everything it can to encourage alternative green transportation and an active lifestyle. An 8 per cent tax on bicycles and helmets is bad policy and a step in the wrong direction,” said the NDP Leader.

Beaches—East York NDP MPP Michael Prue is demanding to know why the McGuinty government has remained silent on last summer’s transformer explosion and fire at 2 Secord Avenue.

Nearly 1,000 residents at 2 Secord, a highrise located in Prue’s riding, were evacuated from their homes on July 20, 2008. Some of the residents have not returned to their apartments.

Ontario’s new payday loan regulations that cap charges at $21 per $100 borrowed is a gift to the payday loan industry, says NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo.

“These restrictions will only affect fringe payday lenders, and won’t change the unfair, usurious interest rates regularly charged by mainstream payday lenders to low-income Ontario workers,” said DiNovo.

NDP Consumer Issues Critic MPP Andrea Horwath took aim at the controversial Technical Standards and Safety Authority following yesterday’s release of stinging criticism from the Auditor General over how the arms-length agency is overseen.