THUNDER BAY – The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are calling the Liberal job creation results smoke and mirrors. “Over half a million men and women in Ontario woke up without a job this morning because of the Liberal government’s job killing and reckless overspending policies”, charges PC MPP Peter Shurman. “At a time when urgent action is required to fix Ontario’s economy and get 600,000 people working again, the Liberals’ answer is to shut the door to the Legislature and ignore the problem. This government continues to drag its heels and make a slow recovery slower”.
The PCs are saying that growth in government jobs is equal to the loss of manufacturing jobs.
“Long before the downturn Ontario embarked on a path that weakened us. This was no accident. This was a series of deliberate choices,” continued Shurman. “Under the Liberals, Ontario’s provincial unemployment rate has been higher than the national average for 70 consecutive months. Ontario has also hemorrhaged 300,000 manufacturing jobs, while at the same time another 300,000 government positions have been added to the taxpayer-funded payrolls”.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Ontario’s unemployment numbers are a direct correlation of the Liberal government’s policies,” added Shurman. “While other provinces in Canada have bounced back from the recession, Ontario still limps along as a have-not province.”
“The Ontario PC discussion paper Paths to Prosperity: An Agenda for Growth – proposes 15 bold, new and transformative ideas to rebuild Ontario’s economy,” enthuses Shurman. “Some of the proposals include: taking urgent action to balance the budget; cutting taxes to create jobs and attract investment; ending the runaround of overregulation facing business owners; and modernizing Ontario’s outdated 1970s-era apprenticeship system to create 200,000 new skilled trade jobs”.
Shurman concluded, “With our economic recovery still lagging, it is clear that the Liberals’ economic policies continue to fail Ontarians. It’s time this government listens to the bold new ideas from Ontario’s PC Party. Only then will we begin to create jobs and grow the economy.”
