“Having driven the economy into the ground, McGuinty is now making a virtue of digging us out”.
- Christina Blizzard, The Toronto Sun, August 27, 2012

QUEEN’S PARK – Job one for Tim Hudak and the PC Caucus is to create well-paying private sector jobs for Ontarians. And to achieve this, we are committed to making the tough choices to rein in nine years of reckless overspending, Ontario PC Economic Development and Innovation Critic Monte McNaughton said today.

McNaughton made the comments following a Liberal announcement to freeze government worker salaries. The Liberals think these one-off announcements make it look like they’re taking strong action. What it really looks like is that they have no plan. With 300,000 new government jobs – at a time when our manufacturing sector has shed 300,000 jobs – credit rating agencies, global investors and people expect government to hold the line on wages.

“A wage freeze is necessary but not sufficient enough,” McNaughton said. “Job creators want to see the structural, fundamental changes that will keep spending under control, not put a lid on a boiling pot of water.

“We had hoped to see even a flicker of recognition from the McGuinty Liberals that they recognize the economic crater Ontario is faced with is due to their deliberate actions,” added McNaughton, a member of the PCs’ Job Creation Task Force.

The Liberals have ramped up reckless overspending – including half a billion dollars to cancel two power plants – that has put us on a path to a $30-billion deficit and a debt that will tripe, McNaughton said.

“The government is weaving all over the place. They’re making it up as they go along. They have no plan to deal with the mess they’ve created. We have been clear, a wage freeze is the first necessary step to fixing the problem, we need to Fix, Freeze, Reduce,” McNaughton added. This is why, since last fall, Tim Hudak and the Ontario PCs have been putting forward new, bold and transformative ideas to reduce the size and cost of government and kick start our economy.

“If the Liberals were serious reining in spending and creating a province that fosters job creation, they could have supported the PCs’ Comprehensive Public Sector Compensation and Wage Freeze Act back in May.” The bill proposed to freeze salaries for all public-sector workers including bureaucrats, teachers and fire fighters.

“Instead, the Liberals voted against the bill and kept on spending – costing taxpayers and job creators alike. The only reason Dalton McGuinty is doing anything now is because he’s out of money.

“Make no mistake, Tim Hudak and the PC Caucus alone understand the need for urgent action and have called for an integrated and comprehensive plan to return Ontario to balanced budgets and kick-start the private-sector economy to create jobs,” McNaughton concluded.