Ontario’s Conservative Leader Envisions A Province More Friendly To Business and Job Creation

By Doug Draper

At what he called a “town hall meeting” in Niagara Falls, Ontario this June 21, Tim Hudak finally got around to doing what many of his supporters and would-be supporters wish he had done in the weeks leading up to last October’s provincial election – spend less time bashing the province’s premier and more time talking about what he would do if he were premier.

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak fields questions from a local labour representative at a ‘town hall’ meeting in Niagara Falls. Photo by Doug Draper

“I did a really good job last time of telling you what was wrong with Dalton McGuinty,” said the Ontario Conservative leader to a mixed crown of municipal, business and labour residents attending the meeting. I didn’t do a very good job of telling you what is right about our (party’s) plan.”

It was a mistake at least some political pundits believe may have been responsible for Hudak losing his early lead in last fall’s election, one the leader seems to have learned from as he spent more than an hour at the June 21 meeting talking about what a government led by him would do to boost Ontario’s economy and create more jobs.

An Ontario that “we all want to see” – one that puts people back to work and generates enough taxes to pay for services like education and health care – is one that will only come about if the province “reigns in spending, pays down its debt, balances its books and pays down its debt,” said Hudak, which is what some European countries like Greece have been failing to do “and, very simply who is investing in Greece these days. And I don’t want to see Ontario become the Greece of Canada.”

Hudak said a Conservative government led by him would lower business taxes to make business in the province more competitive. “I know there will be critics on the left that say’ ‘Well, you are just rewarding your fat-cat, corporate friends,” he added. “That is the old line,” but it doesn’t make very much sense, he insisted, if you are trying to make businesses in the province more competitive in a global economy.

Ontario Conservative leader outlines his party’s plans for province’s future at Niagara Falls meeting.

 On energy, Hudak said the Green Energy Act put in place by McGuinty and his Liberal government has to be changed. It is now focused on subsidizing wind and solar energy projects 10 per cent more than hydro and other forms of energy, he said, and “you can’t base a 21^st century economy on when the sun shines and the wind blows.” Never mind subsidizing wind and solar energy at “ten times the price” of hydro and other more conventional forms of power, he said. “We just can’t afford it.”

 “If you want to buy wind and solar (energy), then buy it,” said Hudak, “but we should not force seniors who can barely afford to pay their hydro bills to subsidies it.”

Hudak said a Conservative government would also place more emphasis on training young people in Ontario, who are so inclined, to enter trains like plumbing, welding, and carpentry and so on, where there are good-paying jobs for those that choose them. “These are good jobs” that can rebuild the province’s middle class, he said.

There is also a need for a government in the province to “change its attitude” and stop looking at private businesses as the enemy. There is too much red-tape and other obstacles placed in the way of doing business that might create jobs and help the province grow in prosperity, he said.

 Hudak added that he is “very concerned to see the hollowing out of our manufacturing sector and seeing jobs go to the United States,” and as much as many seem to think that most, if not all, of these jobs are going to China and other countries where the wages are low, he said, many are heading to the United States where the taxes for business and energy costs are lower.

On the controversial subject of public servant pay and benefit increases, Hudak said that, contrary to the Liberals which has asked for voluntary wage restraint which he feels has failed, he would impost immediate and mandatory wage and benefit freezes for all public sector workers, including police, firefighters, teachers (and he pointed out that both of his parents are teachers), and others.

 Hudak added that something has to be done about a labour arbitration system in the province that fails to recognize that many economically challenged regions like Niagara cannot afford to pay firefighters (for example) a 20 per cent wage increase over three years while many others, including seniors and young people, are trying to get by on low or fixed incomes. “Our arbitration system (in the province) must reflect the ability of people to pay locally,” he said. “We have a situation in Ontario today where we have more public sector haves and more private sector have-nots,”  as a result of that arbitrations system, “ the Conservative leader stressed.

 “Our (call for a public sector wage freeze) is mandatory, it is immediate, and it is across the board,” said Hudak. “I am not going to get a parade for this in front of the teacher union headquarters, but I think most front-line teachers would agree that this is fair. … We just can’t keep approving a three per cent wage increase every year. … It is not sustainable and it is not far (and) these wages and benefits (police, teachers, firefighters and other public sector workers have been receiving) should reflect what is happening in the real world.” The way it is now, said Hudak, “it has gone off the deep end with respect to cost” for everyone else.

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