Ontario urgently needs a comprehensive plan to create jobs, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott is telling Premier Dalton McGuinty.
“Now is the time for the McGuinty government to get to work on one of Ontario’s most pressing issues – jobs,” said Arnott. “Premier McGuinty’s first priority should be to seek the best possible advice to create the best possible environment to create jobs.”
Arnott said, “The election is over, and the McGuinty government has no good reason to keep Ontario families waiting.
To develop an effective jobs plan, Arnott is urging the government to undertake immediate consultations with job creators and industry leaders, as well as organizations like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
“We need their direct knowledge of the policies most likely to encourage strong and sustained job creation,” said Arnott. “The government should listen to their advice, just as it should listen to the best and brightest of Ontario’s public servants.”
Arnott has long been calling for a comprehensive jobs plan. As long ago as spring 2005, he tabled a private member’s resolution calling for the all-party finance and economic affairs committee to hold hearings and develop a plan to save manufacturing jobs. He noted the government was unwilling to follow through.
In recent years, Arnott and the Progressive Conservative caucus have also urged the government to move forward on several key components of a job creation plan, including:
– improving support for small business, the engine of job creation;
– reducing the tax burden on new business investment;
– eliminating the capital tax;
– treating energy policy as economic policy;
– fixing Ontario’s job training programs, giving displaced workers opportunity to retrain;
– investing in infrastructure priorities that strengthen our long-term economic competitiveness;
– making the Ministry of Economic Development the lead ministry of government until the economy begins to grow again;
– promoting Ontario more actively and aggressively abroad; and
– developing a strategy to turn Toronto into the leading financial services city in the world.
“With a comprehensive plan, we can create the jobs we need to create a better future for all of us,” Arnott concluded.
