Ryan Williams

Conservative Party of Canada

Ryan Williams is passionate about the Bay of Quinte region. Williams is President of Williams Hotels which was started in 1979 by Ryan’s grandfather, Don Williams and father, John Williams. Williams is also an entrepreneur and coowner of Hops on Board which provides a delivery service to the craft brewery sector in the Bay of Quinte. Before stepping down to throw his hat in the ring for the Federal election, Williams was a councillor for the City of Belleville, and was the top vote getter in 2018 election. As a councillor, Ryan helped start Belleville’s Pop-Ups on the Bay, as well as its Economic and Destination Development Committee. Williams is Past-President of Bay of Quinte Tourism and the Bay of Quinte Living Council. He is also the Past-Chair and Founder of QuinteVation which aimed to develop a more innovative Bay of Quinte. Williams is married to Allyson and has three children, Jack, Patrick, and Zoey.

Williams believes in a Conservative government that supports small business and its employees, by supporting entrepreneurs and the free market while respecting veterans, seniors, and youth. He believes in the need to foster an environment that encourages investment for today and for a brighter tomorrow.

When it comes to affordability and the housing crisis in the Bay of Quinte region, Williams believes his party has the answers. “Our party has a comprehensive plan both for the cost of living and for the housing crisis in the riding,” says Williams. “To lower food prices, Canada’s Conservatives will ensure Canadians pay lower prices for food by increasing the maximum fine for price-fixing from $24 million to $100 million and introduce criminal penalties for executives for price-fixing. We will bring in a tough code of conduct to protect suppliers and to promote grocery competition,” says Williams, who notes that his party will also give competition laws real teeth to prevent a few big companies from dominating whole industries and pushing up prices. Williams also says his party will give consumers and small businesses a much needed break. “ We are going to give a HST holiday in December for hard-hit retailers and to help consumers stretch their dollars.”

Williams says solving the housing crisis in the region is a top priority for his party. “We will make housing more affordable, increase supply swiftly, and implement a plan to build 1 million housing units in the next three years,” he says. In order to do so, Williams explains that he will be working with the provincial government to increase skilled trades and to look at more accurate population intensification growth models. “To stabilize prices we need to swing hammers,” he says. Williams also believes that programs that allow homeowners to create secondary suites in their homes to create affordable rental units need to be revived. As well, Williams says his party will ban foreign investors not living in or moving to Canada from buying homes here for two years, after which the program will be reviewed.

On a more local level, Williams says it is one of his personal top priorities to get water infrastructure to Wellington in order to allow for stale subdivision plans to move forward.

To address homelessness, Williams says his party will re-implement the housing first approach which he believes was watered down by the Liberal government. “I will work personally with Prince Edward County and municipalities on this important issue,” says Williams.

Williams believes immigration in the Bay of Quinte region should be a top priority. “I was one of the architects of the Bay of Quinte immigration portal in 2015. We need more immigration to the region, but I want to state that the number one issue of attracting immigrants to the region has been the lack of affordable housing, which we need to fix first and foremost,” he says. “Our government will keep increasing immigration, especially as it related to our lack of skilled workers in our region.” Williams believes the first fit to be skilled trades to ensure there are more housing units. “Attracting people to the region is not our problem. Our problem is filling, and building jobs in the region with qualified individuals.”

Balancing the budget will not be an easy task, but Williams is confident in his government. “We are the only party committed to balance the budget within 10 years,” says Williams. “This will be through growth, paycheques, and building wealth again in the country.” Williams says COVID-19 has been the biggest challenge this country has ever faced, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has added a staggering $500 billion of new debt in two years, and $100 billion in the 4 years prior to COVID-19. “It will take a plan to build Canada’s economy to balance our budget. Our plan to get Canada’s economy back on track includes creating more jobs, growing paycheques, growing innovation, and creating more Canadian made products, tech, and services,” he says.

To help small businesses grow in Bay of Quinte, Williams says his government would introduce policies that result in better wages, and help struggling small businesses get back on their feet. “This includes launching of up to $200,000 of Main Street Business loans to replace CEBA, which has been too small, and $25,000 of the Canadian Investment Accelerator from small business, providing a 5 per cent investment tax credit for any capital investment made in 2022, and 2023,” says Williams. “Our Jobs Surge Plan will pay 50 per cent of salaries for those on CERB for 6 months as they gain employment, so we transition people off of CERB and into more than the 3000 open jobs in this region right now.”