Arnott says throne speech untrustworthy
As long as the Liberals remain in power there will be a shortage of jobs in Ontario, according to Wellington Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.
He said last week that promises in the recent Liberal throne speech just cannot be trusted.
“This one was mostly a repackaging of broken promises and old News,” he said. “It may be called the Open Ontario Plan, but it’s actually a signal that, as long as the Liberals remain in office, our province will remain closed to jobs and investment.”
Throne speeches are broad, general outlines of the government’s plans, but are typically criticized for being devoid of specific policies and details. Having served in the Ontario for nearly 20 years in government and opposition, Arnott has heard many such speeches.
“We face very challenging circumstances in Ontario today,” he said, citing the province’s spiralling debt, its nearly $25-billion deficit and its job-killing red-tape burden.
“The throne speech promised very little to reverse those trends.”
Credibility is a major problem for this government, charged Arnott.
“In previous throne speeches, they promised to restrain spending, to reduce red tape and use of consultants, to close the coal-fired generating plants by 2009, to hire 9,000 nurses and to build 35,000 long-term care beds,” he said.
“None of these promises were kept.”
The government’s controversial Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST, merited no mention in its 2007 throne speech. Introducing that new tax has been the most significant decision the government has made since the 2007 election.
“What other surprises, I wonder, might be in store in the months ahead?” he asked.
The government has also yet to announce a plan to bring back the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs lost over the last few years. Tourism was left out and agriculture merited only four lines in a 16-page speech.
“We need action on these priorities, and we need it now,” Arnott concluded.
