TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne is criticizing Doug Ford for suggesting Ontario has to "take care of our own" before making a push for immigrants to move to northern Ontario.
The Liberal premier says the Progressive Conservative leader will have to explain exactly what he meant by the comment, which she says she found "very disturbing".
During Friday's northern debate, Ford said the government would have to exhaust every option for employing locals before relying on immigrants to fill jobs in sparsely populated areas.
Both Wynne and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath say they would consider an immigration pilot program to combat population decline and draw workers to northern Ontario.
Wynne says that in a province where everyone except Indigenous people are immigrants, she doesn't know who Ford considers "our own."
A spokesman for Ford said Saturday morning that the Tory leader was not immediately available for comment.
It's Day 4 of the June 7 election campaign, and all three party leaders have planned events.
