A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Yes, I know. It may seem odd to some that a columnist like me, so often tagged as an old leftie, is saying the focus should be on growing jobs and the economy in this region.
Yet as the father of a 22-year-old daughter who wonders, along with many of her young friends, if there is any future for them in this region following their graduation from college and university, I can’t ignore this region’s unemployment rates, which remain among the highest in this province and country, and what little that too many of our municipal politicians are doing to promote jobs and economic growth, and keep young people here. Never mind attracting young, talented people to this area of the world to build a healthy and prosperous future.
We are now just a year away from the next municipal elections in Niagara, Ontario and across this province, and we who have an opportunity to vote in those elections have got to start paying closer attention- PLEASE – if we have not paid enough attention up to now.
We need to take a hard look – a much harder look – at those now sitting on our regional and local municipal councils, and ferret out those who are actively and sincerely fighting for a better, healthier, more economically and environmentally sustainable future for this region, versus those who are not.
As our region continues to suffer one of the highest unemployment rates in Ontario we cannot afford to move on with dinosaurs from the last century who are not willing to consider new and more creative models for governance in this Niagara region, just because they want to protect their own asses around the status quo.
We cannot afford to move forward with politicians who want to move toward privatizing seniors services, as some of the Hudak-oriented conservatives want to do, or kill any more courageous move to build a regional transit system, similar to the great systems now operating in Waterloo Region and other Ontario regional and local municipalities.
Services like a more affordable, accessible transit system, versus the Hudak mentality of spending hundreds of millions of public dollars on more roads, is crucial for people in this region who cannot afford to purchase a car, but need a bus as a lifeline for a job opportunity in Niagara.
There are good people on Niagara, Ontario’s regional council, including this region’s current chair, Gary Burroughs, who know we need to invest more in regional transit and make more progressive moves around renewable energy, etc. to move this region in to the 21st century.
The status quo or something less than the status quo, which is where some of the anti-regional government in Niagara want to go, is not acceptable.
As of the latest Statistics Canada figures, Niagara continues to suffer an 8.5 per cent unemployment rate – higher than the Canadian average of abot 6.9 per cent now. And that does not adequately reflect an unemployment ratie for younger people closer to 16 per cent. In all, it adds up to a race to the bottom that is only being led by a few unfortunate other regions in this province, most notably Windsor.
So let’s please stop playing around with this anti-region, anti-union and education and social assistance Hudak garbage around let’s not do anything to improve the lives of people suffering from one of the worst unemployment rates in this province and country, and let’s not do anything to invest in public transit or any other services that may give low-income people and younger people who can hardly afford to buy a car a chance to move around this region to work at a job.
More about this later.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share in the discussion below with your comment.Please be advised that we only post comments by individuals who also dare to share their first and last names, just as the rest of us do here, for reasons around being transparent and accontable around our views. No name, no post. It is that simple.)
Niagara At Large 
A wise and courageous article
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You get companies to invest in a jurisdiction by creating one that has a competitive tax structure, access to competitively priced resources, stable government and proximity to end customer,
What potential investors get in Ontario and Niagara….. out of this world electricity costs, uncompetitive tax structures, instability of government.
Why are the electricity costs so high, our taxes so high and our government so unstable?
Because governments at ALL LEVELS (Municipal, Regional, Provincial and Federal) waste 10’s of billions of dollars on scandals, waste, inefficiency, poorly designed underused programs, greed, stupidity ……. we all know what I am talking about….
These 10’s of Billions could be used to decrease corporate and personal taxes and increase our competitiveness which is a good thing economically.
With regard to your specific point on regional transit…. I get the whole GO Train thing linking KEY areas with Toronto. However, SUBSIDIZING a transit solution to ship a few people from Port Colborne to Niagara Falls to work is a little over the top. The regional transit system current ridership numbers are dismal. It is currently draining resources from other more worthy services or tax controls. What’s wrong with the region in this case encouraging people to live where they work! Now there is a brainstorm…. if I understand you correctly and the mayor of Port Colborne, we should collectively be paying our hard earned income to pay for people to do otherwise. This is an example of poorly designed service strategies that is the tip of iceberg of government waste.
With respect to unions and their impact on our competitiveness all things considered, come on. The cost of operating all levels of government has increased meteorically because of greedy unions and spineless politicians. It has to be curtailed. If it doesn’t, where do you think the money is going to come from? We can’t tax corporations any more for fear of affecting our competitiveness. Your pocket and mine is where it will come from and I think we all should agree paying more than 50% of you income in some form of taxes of another is outrageous.
Just sayin…..
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Doug you are absolutely correct that the citizen should pay more attention and scrutinize the local governments.
Your paragraph that our region continues to suffer one of the highest unemployment rates in Ontario. We cannot afford to move on with dinosaurs from the last century who are not willing to consider new and more creative models for governance in this Niagara region, just because they want to protect their own asses around the status quo. Doug, are you saying the ‘old guard’ Councillors are protecting their asses by protecting the status quo? What about the new councillors who would build a new transit system, but only if and when the new transit system is viable and would actually assist in creating more jobs?
Great transit systems operate in great communities, not in poorly run communities that don’t know the difference between investing and spending or the difference between luring job producing companies or driving them away.
Since you declare that our government run senior’s services are preferred then may in invite you to check out the story of wheelchair Bob: http://newsalertniagara.blogspot.ca/2013/10/a-cry-for-help.html. Now, we are hearing reports of alleged financial corruption and abuse in our Senior housing complexes!
What’s new? More to come…
You say ‘stop playing around with this anti-region, anti-union and education and social assistance Hudak garbage. Let’s not do anything to improve the lives of people suffering from one of the worst unemployment rates in this province and country, and let’s not do anything to invest in public transit or any other services that may give low-income people and younger people who can hardly afford to buy a car a chance to move around this region to work at a job’. Doug, just who are you blaming for the mess we are in? This shit has been going on for decades through the effort of those who have been protecting their asses.
You can blame Hudak and any of the new councillors all day long but they weren’t here when our mess was created! They were not the protectors of the status quo! Doug, you know who the protectors of the status quo are! You have sat in the Niagara Regional Council Chamber for years – long before we heard the name of Hudak or any of the new councillors and yet you seem to think that our mess is the fault of the Hudak and new guys. Why the hell don’t you tell us how well your ideology has been working for Niagara and its citizens? Why don’t you tell us why our companies and their jobs prefer consolidating to their facilities elsewhere as opposed to their facilities elsewhere consolidating to their facilities in Niagara? Doug, perhaps you should tell us how well we have been doing before the NEW IDIOTS came along.
Investing is a matter of investigating the particulars, weighing all options and concluding cause and effects before driving up job-killing costs through ideology driven spending of hard won resources that rob our children’s future. It is and has been the mismanagement of our government that has created our plight, but as you say ‘let’s not do anything’ to help low-income people and younger people find jobs and a future in Niagara.
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We have just hosted —for two days —, my nephew and young family (two toddlers) from U. of Windsor. A lot of talk among the adults was comparing the economies of Windsor to St. C. and also the two U’s. Mike’s wife was over the moon about the beauty of Niagara, but Windsor is pulling ahead of this region economically, because of some good choices made at the Municipal levels. They are on the rebound; we are not. We do indeed need to know more about people running for elected office on both the Provincial, Regional and Municipal levels. Sadly, there are developers who back their friends for partisan purposes. All this is in the public domain, but it taints our choice of elected officials who might make a difference. Bacher is right; this is a brave article.
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Gail, ANY region is worlds away than Niagara. I am very disappointed that some regional councillors want to stick to their petty politics and petty silos and not understand what it takes to build a great community where people actually want to live or move to, and not feel stuck in and want to escape from. I hear from many young people that the first thing they’re going to do after they graduate from college or university is to move to Toronto or out West where there are more jobs and transit, economic development and civic environment is truly on the agenda of these communities’ leaders.
I still should contact my artist friend who can commission a plaque with a brass portrait of a Tyrannasaurus Rex and make it into a Niagarasaurus Rex and then present this plaque at a pre-arranged media conference and hand it personally to each of the councillors at regional council that are holding us back about fifty or more years.
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Greg, until you are willing to donate your vehicle and your time to take people in need from city to city, we will continue to need a regional transit system. Thirty percent of people over the age of sixteen do not drive in Niagara for various reasons and are fed up with subsidizing automobile infrastructure to make life more convenient for people like you.
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The need Angela is clearly a lot lower than you think LOL!
As for subsidizing auto infrastructure….. we have had this conversation before and I regret that you still don’t get it….
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Greg it is YOU that doesn’t get it. I should not have to pay for any automobile infrastructure until such time that I can use it. Public transit is UNIVERSAL meaning everybody can use it, even if you choose not to. But you can wake up tomorrow morning and CHOOSE to take a bus instead of drive. But the reverse is not true for thirty percent of people in Niagara, yet this thirty percent is also paying taxes to support automobile infrastructure. If you don`t like my opinions on these things Greg, I am not going to change. There are plenty of studies that support the fact that for every $1 transit is subsidized, $5 is used to subsidize drivers. Drivers should pay more of the freight. I am not saying drivers should pay the whole freight, but they should pay much more than they are right now.
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Let’s get to brass tacks! 35% of every litre of fuel is taxed and supposed to go to road infrastructure. It doesn’t! Do you know how many litres of gas are purchased a day? Do the math. That is a fact! So we drivers are subsidizing many government programs with the tax we pay alone on fuel! NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
Truck traffic causes the most damage to roadways. That’s why their stickers are more expensive! What do you think trucks haul ANGELA? All the things you and EVERYONE else requires to live!
With respect to your other comments re: moving expenses being $7000…. you lost a lot of blog cred there! I think all of us would agree that that is ridiculous amount to quote and further suspect these studies you refer to are equally questionable. Just more propaganda designed to confuse our witless politicians.
The issue ANGELA is that this service did not hold up in the court of feasibility. That is why it was axed! Unlike Municipal BUS service which I think we all agree is a reasonable service (IF PROPERLY MANAGED AND SELF-SUFFICIENT) to provide. The government can not provide to everyone and supplying a bus to ship around a few people from region to region goes beyond what the taxpayers in this region are prepared to pay for. I am grateful the region concurred.
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Greg, driving is not self-sufficient. It never was and never will be. I pay a substantial portion of my property taxes, consumer dollars, provincial and federal taxes to automobile infrastructure though I do not benefit. I pay $5 per km of travel. If you don’t believe it costed me $7,000 to move, believe what you will but I had all the receipts from the move and that’s what it cost me. I also lost a lot of time by not working while I had to move, so nobody was making the money to pay the bills while this was happening. I think you need to get your head out of your ego and start knowing that other people live here that do not share your relatively privileged status here in the region. When more and more people are able to move out of this region, then it will be much more difficult for you to maintain whatever customer base you think you have as a small business, because the ones that are left behind here are not wealthy enough to have a lot of disposable income to buy anything you might be offering. You need to take note that OTHER PEOPLE need things too and not just you. We have to move away from ME, ME and more ME, which is what you seem to be preaching and think more in terms of WE, as to how we can make living in any community better for everyone.
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