By Pepper Parr
March 7, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It’s just, jobs, jobs, jobs – nothing else matters. The focus on creating jobs is so tight that Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak has decided to move off his “right to work” position, which no one other than the hard headed right wingers who didn’t like the increase in the minimum wage, liked all that much anyway.
The province released data on Friday – Ontario gained 6,100 net jobs in February – full-time employment rose by 5,300 positions last month. Ontario’s job market grew by 95,700 net jobs in 2013 and today’s increase is in addition to the 6,000 net jobs the province gained in January.
Premier Wynne runs a job training course for Mayor and Ed Eves, president of the Lakeshore Rotary Club
The province has recovered all the jobs lost during the global recession and employment is now 2.7 per cent above the pre-recession peak. February’s job gains contributed to an overall increase of 446,100 jobs since the low point of the recession in June 2009. Ontario’s economic recovery continues to outpace the United States and the Great Lakes States since June 2009.
In February alone, Ontario announced investments that will help create 340 new jobs and retain almost 2,300 jobs in the province.
The provincial government claims it is creating 200 manufacturing and R&D jobs by supporting the launch of a new clean energy manufacturing facility in London.
Cisco is investing heavily in the Toronto area market and expects to invest $100 million over ten years.
Toronto has been selected as the location for one of four global Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centers, representing an investment of $100 million over 10 years. The province is taking some of the credit for this development.
Ontario has committed over $100 million through Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds — attracting a total investment of almost $1 billion. This is helping to create and retain more than 24,400 jobs in Ontario communities.
We didn’t see any of that money landing in Burlington
The province has a Youth Jobs Strategy that they claim will help create job opportunities for about 30,000 youth over two years. It has already created internships and job placements for more than 8,200 youth in the province.
Creating jobs or buying jobs? Cisco is one of the most profitable companies in the world, and I bet there’s nothing they love more than a weak politician. Each one of those jobs will cost taxpayers over $100,000, and we don’t know that the company wouldn’t have expanded here anyway. A large percentage of these jobs will end up in Ottawa which has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the province. Wynne is essentially taking tax dollars from poorer communities and subsidizing a sector that’s already well paid and flush with jobs in an affluent city. What’s Wynne’s big plan to save and create manufacturing jobs in southwestern Ontario?
The promise of creating jobs is getting more than a little tiring.
Politicians, in general, have no clue as to how a job is created. That’s why it never, and will never, work.
A job is created when “something” is being produced. Hot air, pushing paper and promises do not count as “something”.
If they were really serious they would eliminate every level railway/road crossing in the country. Not only would jobs be created but Canada would have a good start on implementing a transport/transit system that would be a good start for us to catch up to the rest of the world.
There are other examples, however they would involve actually DOING SOMETHING !
What I take away from this article is that ‘a job is a job is a job’. Perhaps if the Premier thinks the electorate believes it is that simple, she will call an election.
McGuinty promised the creation of 600,000 jobs over ten years as a result of implementing the HST. 4 years later and I doubt it has created any jobs except for the accountants and IT specialists required to implement the tax and those would have been temporary jobs.
And when he announced The Green Energy Act it was supposed to create 50,000 jobs by end of 2012. But the Liberals admitted that up to mid-2013 only 31,000 had been created. Reportedly half of those were temporary construction jobs. So where are these promised jobs?
In 2009 the Liberals granted UbiSoft (makers of gaming software) $260 million to create 800 over 10 years. That’s $325K per job. That is awfully expensive job creation.
If the government would grant me $260,000 I promise I could create 0.8 jobs within 10 years.
Be careful when any politician promises jobs or claims job creation through investment (ie your tax dollars and mine). They are always over stated and very costly – too costly.