By Pepper Parr
September 11, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
There is more to the Advanced Manufacturing hub the ¨Prime Minister announced with great fanfare in Burlington recently. The City’s Economic Development Corporation has been working on the project for some time; their approach is to do away with the fanfare and let the results of their efforts speak for themselves.
“When we have something to say that is relevant” said Fran McKeown, Executive Director of the not for profit organization “you will hear from us”.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking to a hand picked Burlington audience.
The Gazette got a note from Tony Araujo, Vice President – Testing, Paragon Systems, Concord, ON. Here is what he had to say:
I read your story on the Prime Minister’s announcement of a new “Advanced Manufacturing” hub for Burlington and was shocked that the Conservatives would do this again! I’m already fighting the last “investment” this government made in London’s Advanced Manufacturing Park.
In March 2015, Industry Canada’s FedDev Ontario gave Fanshawe College an $8.1 million gift to set up a for-profit commercial testing lab on land provided to the college for free by the City of London. The Canadian Centre for Product Validation (CCPV) will compete head-to-head with existing private sector testing labs throughout Ontario using students as labour.
FedDev Ontario’s own analysis of Fanshawe’s CCPV business plan even concluded that it would “adversely affect” the existing 30 private sector testing labs that “currently serve Ontario industries quite well”.
$8.1 million is bad enough. $100 million will be the death of my business and the 32 jobs that we currently have in Vaughan.
As a small business person, I expected this kind of crazy policy from the NDP, certainly not from the Conservatives.
Is it any wonder the electorate thinks that the Conservatives have lost touch with their values?
There are usually several sides to every story.
As a first time reader I was struck with the types of news published;which begs a question.
Who or what are the unpublished names of ownership of this gazette.
Editor’s note: Who we are and what we are is set out in the About Us section – Welcome to the Gazette
Toronto Star, on September 5, published a Home of the Week. It is located in North York, 3,300 sq. ft, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. with a pool, and a toboggan hill. It sold for $1,729,000. Taxes are $5,747. I have a small, frame, 1,509 sq ft bungalow in Burlington, assessed at $709,000 which pays $14,433 (including BIA and a commercial surcharge). Even assuming that 1/3 of my tax is commercial, my Burlington property pays almost double the rate of a North York property valued at much more than double my valuation. This is crazy. Why should it cost over 4 times as much here as in Toronto?