By Mark Squibb/January 20, 2023
Mount Pearl North MHA Lucy Stoyles may be one of the most recognised people in Mount Pearl.
Stoyles served on City council for over two decades and was executive assistant to MHA Paul Lane for nearly eight years.
Last year marked her first full year as an MHA following her win over PC incumbent Jim Lester in the April 2021 snap provincial election.
Though the geography is much the same, Stoyles said the positions are quite different.
“Councillor and MHA are two completely different jobs,” said Stoyles. “As a councillor, you’re dealing with municipal issues, you’re dealing with roads, you’re dealing with neighbour disputes, you’re dealing with snow clearing, you’re dealing with garbage, all that stuff. As an MHA, it’s completely different, because you’re dealing with all the issues related to the province. You’re dealing with seniors, you’re dealing with housing, you’re dealing with all that sort of stuff. But for me, it wasn’t a big change because I had spent eight years working as a constituency assistant prior to getting elected. I was doing a lot of the work already. So, when I put my name on the ballot, I knew what I was getting into. I knew if I was lucky enough to get elected, which I was, what the role was. I knew what my job was going to be, because I was doing it for eight years behind the scenes.”
Stoyles’s narrow win, which Lester contested in court (if you remember, the 2021 election was a bit of a gong show all around,) claimed the region for the Liberals for the first time in over two decades.
But Stoyles said she’s not concerned with how her constituents vote — she’s in the game to help anybody she can.
“After the election is over, and the votes are all counted, it has nothing to do with Liberals or PCs or NDPs or Independents,” said Stoyles. “It’s got to do with, ‘What can we do to help you?’ When you call my office, we don’t ask you who you voted for… Our door is always open, and we’re just a phone call away.”
Top of her mind as we start a new year is housing and the ever-increasing cost of living.
“Housing is a big issue,” said Stoyles. “There’s’ a lot of addiction, and a lot of people homeless. And rent is rising.”
She’s especially concerned with how the cost of living increases affect seniors in her district.
“We go to Masonic Park on a regular basis to meet with people up there,” said Stoyles. “So, I have a lot of seniors in my district, and a lot of them are low-income. They’re only getting their old age security and their supplement, which means they’re getting about $1,700 or $1,800 a month… And so if you’re paying $800 or $900 in rent, half of your money is going to rent. And rent is going up higher than that.”
Stoyles’ executive assistant Karen Snelgrove, the lady most likely to answer the phone if you call the MHA’s office, added that for some people rent has increased anywhere from $200 to $350.
“So, then they have less to live on, they’re calling to see if the government can help by offering subsides,” said Snelgrove. “And there’s only so much money to go around when it comes to housing subsides. But there’s a bigger cry for that now than probably ever before because the cost of living is gone up.”
Stoyles said it seems more people are availing of food banks more than ever.
“We’re constantly getting hampers for people, and not just seniors, but single parents and low-income families where both parents are working minimum wage jobs and they still can’t afford to buy groceries or they can’t afford to pay rent,” said Stoyles.
She’s optimistic that the situation will improve in 2023, but admitted that realistically, things may not turn around that fast.
She applauded Andrew Furey’s Liberals for issuing $500 cost of living cheques earlier this year (and hopes government may look into issuing another such cheque) and the decision to increase the income supplement and the seniors' benefit by 10 percent.
Stoyles said she is proud of the role she played in lowering the fees charged by payday loan companies.
“They prey on the most vulnerable people,” said Stoyles. “I’ve dealt with a number of people that have had no choice but to go to Easyhome to buy furniture or a TV. People who are doing that, they have to do that because they can’t get credit anywhere else because their credit is bad. I brought it to Minister Sarah Stoodley that we have to do something about this. Because people are paying 28 to 30 percent interest. And it’s not only high interest.”
She said that in addition to high interest rates, borrowers have to pay $15 late fees, per day, per item.
“One family we were helping was paying $90 late fees,” said Stoyles.
As per the new legislation, which passed in September, the maximum total cost of borrowing by a payday lender was decreased from $21 per $100 loaned, to $14 per $100 loaned, the lowest in the country.
“Sarah Stoodley stood up in the House of Assembly and gave me the credit for getting those changes made, so that was one of the things, since I’ve been elected, that I’m very happy for,” said Stoyles. “I would have liked it less than 10 percent, because 14 percent is still too high.”
Stoyles is also working with MP Seamus O’Regan’s office on a plan to better regulate reverse mortgages, which she said disproportionately affects seniors.
“They see that their house is worth $200,000, so they think they’ll get a $110,000 back,” said Stoyles. “But once you sign off, the bank owns your house. I’ve had two or three people and families that got a CHIP mortgage. But when they move into a seniors home, the bank owns the house, so they couldn’t sell the house.”
Stoyles said she would also like to see improvements to sick benefits, which are federally mandated and only last for 15 weeks and would like to see government cut red tape that prevents doctors from moving to the province.
“If you’re going for treatment and going for chemo and going for radiation, 15 weeks is nothing,” said Stoyles. “Some of these programs need to be changed, and I’m going to try and change them.”
