FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 26, 2013

CAMBRIDGE – Skeptics like to write off Ontario, saying that manufacturing is dead and that we can’t compete against China, or even Mexico.  To put it bluntly, they’re wrong, PC Leader Tim Hudak said today.

Advanced manufacturing jobs are already returning to North America, driven by rising transportation costs and higher wages in Asia. “We have to move quickly to get a piece of that action,” Hudak said. “Our plan will attract at least 300,000 well-paying advanced manufacturing jobs to Ontario so that our youth don’t have to leave to get ahead.”

Hudak, flanked by Cambridge MPP Rob Leone, added that the McGuinty-Wynne government’s wasteful overspending, high taxes and expensive power rates have chased away good paying jobs, which is shrinking the middle class. “24,000 men and women in Waterloo Region woke up this morning looking for a job. Ontario workers and employers need a government that believes in them, not a government that treats manufacturing as a smokestack relic of the last century.”

The Ontario PCs’ latest policy discussion paper – Paths to Prosperity: Advanced Manufacturing for a Better Ontario – is a comprehensive plan to create a minimum of 300,000 new manufacturing jobs.  To read a copy, please visit: www.ontariopc.com/paths

The PC plan includes bold ideas like:

  • Closing the productivity gap with the United States by encouraging companies to give our workers the advanced technology and cutting edge machinery they need to compete through changes in the tax code.
  • Establishing a new affordable power rate for industry that is priced competitively to bordering provinces and states.
  • Matching provincial retraining assistance to the needs of employers and the job market.
  • Working with Alberta’s political and business leaders to maximize oil sands opportunities.

“I know manufacturing is destined for a bright future here in Waterloo Region and Ontario. Our Ontario will always build things, make things and fix things. But we won’t, if we stay on the current path.”

For further information, contact Natalie Weed (647) 920-4158 natalie.weed@pc.ola.org