THUNDER BAY – “If higher taxes created jobs, everyone on Ontario would have two jobs,” states Vic Fedeli, the MPP for Nippising. “There are 2400 jobs being lost daily in Ontario under Dalton McGuinty’s failed policies,” the MPP continued. “Yet all the same people are back in cabinet who got us into this mess.”
PC Leader Tim Hudak said today “Dalton McGuinty – and not global economic uncertainty – is to blame for Ontario’s jobs crisis. Ontario lost over 75,000 full-time jobs in October, or 2,400 every day, continuing a disturbing pattern that shows our province is falling harder and faster than the rest of Canada. A staggering 7-out-of-10 jobs lost across the country last month were in Ontario, and yet Dalton McGuinty still refuses to take any action. Dalton McGuinty and his cabinet ministers have put Ontario on the wrong track with their tax hikes, corporate welfare handouts and energy schemes. Instead of taking responsibility, they blame Ontario’s job crisis on global economic uncertainty. Yet the rest of Canada continues to perform well and actually created jobs last month. Ontario has lost jobs in three of the last four months”.
Hudak challenged Dalton McGuinty to tell the more than 2,400 Ontario families who will lose their job today what he will do to stop Ontario from hemorrhaging jobs and to stimulate the creation of new, private sector jobs.
Hudak charges, “It’s been a month since the election, and in that time we have seen 75,000 full-time jobs lost and zero job creation ideas from Dalton McGuinty. The Ontario PC Caucus is ready to take action to reverse Ontario’s jobs crisis. The Ontario PC Job Creation Task Force will focus on good new ideas to create the right conditions for Ontario to attract investment and new jobs. Dalton McGuinty will try to tell you that increasing hydro bills will create jobs. He’ll try to tell you that taxing hundreds of businesses to pay for a single corporate handout is justified, but the 2,400 workers who will lose their jobs today know that isn’t true. We need to change Ontario’s approach to job creation and change it now.”
Fedeli stated that “If the global economy is to blame, then how come Saskatchewan and Alberta are doing so well. Its simple, high energy costs in Ontario equals job loses”.
“We have high taxes, high hydro rates, and no confidence”, concluded Fedeli.