Ontario’s economy – let’s get the fundamentals right

Thousands upon thousands of families are leaving Ontario because they don’t see opportunity here. They don’t see their future here.

In 2007 alone, a net 36,000 people moved from Ontario to other provinces.

That’s what happens when you get the fundamentals wrong.

You start to slide and soon that decline picks up speed. And before you know it, Ontario is dead last in Canada in economic growth.

When a small businessman wants to hire apprentices but the McGuinty government rules force him to hire three unionized electricians for every one apprentice, we know why his business isn’t growing, why those young people are leaving.

When the Ministry of Labour conducts something called an ergonomic audit on a small business and orders them to spend tens of thousands of dollars on new chairs, we understand why they aren’t able to invest in new equipment to offset the high dollar.

When we know Ontario has the highest taxes on new business investment in all of Canada, we also know why risk-takers and entrepreneurs are taking their investments and their dreams and their jobs somewhere else -- and taking thousands of our brightest and best young people with them.

That’s why thousands of young people are leaving Ontario. And when our young people leave they take our future with them and they often don’t come back.

Ontario, once the leader in almost every area of Canadian life, has slipped badly. And we’ve slipped because we’re on the wrong track. We simply cannot afford big hiring, big taxing, and big pay raise government anymore. Ontario has become the only province in Canada where the rate of public sector job creation exceeds the rate of private sector job creation in all of Canada.

Last year, the McGuinty government took in five billion unbudgeted dollars from what was then a better economy.

And here is what Mr. McGuinty did with that money. For every 20 of those dollars, he spent 19 and returned just one of those 20 windfall dollars to the taxpayer. Mr. McGuinty thinks it is the government’s money and that he knows best what to do with it.

We know it’s your money and that you will make the right choices if we leave it with you. It doesn’t get more fundamental than that. The need to change course now doesn’t get any clearer.

Just as we formulated a successful manufacturing strategy in the 1960’s around cheap energy, so too can we lead the world in manufacturing in the new century of higher energy costs and more conservation innovation required.

Tourism today requires that we compete like never before. We must look our best and offer our best. Feel good ads won’t cut it – we need to develop a real plan; a plan with both steak and sizzle.

If British Columbia’s Liberal government can succeed in reducing the number of regulations by 25 per cent in four short years, we know Ontario can do better. We need options that make our Ontario a beacon in all the world for risk takers and job creators through lower taxes, balanced regulation and real, sensible strategies.

We know that things always come up to push us off course. But we also know if the fundamentals are right, we’re much more likely to end up in the right place.