QUEEN’S PARK – With total employment falling by 25,000 in the province last month, Ontario needs immediate, urgent action to give people new opportunities and new hope, Ontario PC Economic Development and Innovation Critic Monte McNaughton said today.

McNaughton cited data from today’s Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey as evidence of the government’s continued inaction. While the public sector gained 32,000 jobs during August, the private sector experienced staggering job losses. The unemployment rate rose to 8.0 per cent, marking the 68th consecutive month Ontario’s job creation record has been worse than the national average.

“We can’t balance the budget without getting the 600,000 unemployed Ontarians back at work,” McNaughton stated. “That’s why we need urgent action on two fronts: one that reins in the size and cost of government and one that will kick-start private sector job growth.”

“These last two weeks, McGuinty has tried to distract us all with a phony session of the Legislature,” McNaughton stated. “Today’s devastating job numbers shows he has no plan. He’s not focused on jobs. Instead, he’s willing to tack right or left when it suits his own agenda.”

After nine years of reckless overspending, Queen’s Park has run out of money to throw at its problems, McNaughton said. “The result is that all the things we care most about – like front-line health care and classroom education – are now at risk.”

Ontario needs a new path, McNaughton said, “outlined by our Freeze, Fix, Reduce package, to freeze public sector wages and scrap unaffordable public sector perks, halt planned spending increases, fix the way government works and spends, and reduce that spending on a permanent basis.

“Ontarians are looking to us for more bold new ideas to get our province on the move again. Well, as they’ll see in the days ahead – we’re just getting started.”

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