QUEEN’S PARK – Brad Duguid becomes the second Liberal cabinet minister to break ranks with Dalton McGuinty over the job-creating potential of Alberta’s oil sands – further proof McGuinty has no plan to create jobs and grow Ontario’s economy, PC Economic Development and Innovation Critic Monte McNaughton said today.

McNaughton made the comments after it was revealed that Economic Development and Innovation Minister, Brad Duguid, will visit Canada’s oil-production capital to discuss oil sands development. Last May PC Leader Tim Hudak toured the oil sands, praising its strategic advantages to create private-sector jobs and economic growth for Ontario.

“Ontario has many assets to allow us to play a leading role in developing the oil sands including steel and engineering, refineries in Sarnia, research in London, technology in Waterloo, the financial services sector in Toronto and a skilled and entrepreneurial workforce,” McNaughton said. “It’s encouraging to see Dwight Duncan and now Brad Duguid, come around and defy Dalton McGuinty over oil sands development,” McNaughton added.

The McGuinty Liberals are dragging Ontario toward a $30-billion deficit by sacrificing Ontario’s historic advantages of low energy rates, competitive taxes and a low regulatory burden. “And by repeatedly slamming the job-creating potential of the oil sands, Dalton McGuinty has slammed the door on new growth opportunities beyond Ontario’s borders,” McNaughton added.

We are in the midst of a made-in-Ontario jobs and debt crisis as a direct result of nine years of reckless overspending by the Liberal government, McNaughton said, citing that Ontario has hemorrhaged 300,000 manufacturing jobs, while at the same time another 300,000 government positions have been added to the taxpayer-funded payrolls.

“For Tim Hudak and the PC Caucus, our priority is growing Ontario’s economy and creating good-paying private-sector jobs. Every decision we make must go through that lens.

“Instead of running down the oil sands like Dalton McGuinty, we owe it to over half a million Ontarians who are out of work right now to ask how can Ontario best leverage the potential of the oil sands to create jobs here at home,” McNaughton concluded.