September 2, 2011

Only the NDP will tackle Ontario’s jobs crisis – Brian Dougherty

Working people of the Ottawa Valley are being left behind, NDP candidate Brian Dougherty as he met last week with striking OPSEU members at Algonquin College in Pembroke. Doughtery, who will carry his party’s banner in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke riding, is an electrial worker.

“The McGuinty government has forgotten us up here,”Dougherty said. “Over 9 per cent of the working people here are out of work. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the whole country and the McGuinty government does nothing for us. Neither would Tim Hudak’s Conservatives. They would take us back to the bad old days when Mike Harris ruined our public services.”

With Conservative support, he said, the McGuinty government is cutting taxes for big corporations from14 percent to 10 percent. “That’s going to cost the government – taxpayers like you and me – $1.8 billion and it’s just a big fat giveaway. The big corporate executives don’t even have to promise to create jobs in return for all that cash. They can take the  money and run.”

Dougherty said the NDP would save the province $1.8 billion. Intead of more corporate tax cuts the New Democrats would set tax rates back at the 2010 level and that would raise the government’s revenue by $1.8 billion.

“Ontario has lost 300,000 well-paying jobs in the past decade,” said Dougherty.  “Economic sectors that people here depend on – forestry, farming, manufacturing – are threatened and are shedding workers.

“We can’t go on like this. We need fresh thinking in Queen’s Park.”

Dougherty said the NDP would invest in people, supporting badly-needed infrastructure improvements and repairs that create construction jobs and help private enterprises get their products to market and at the same time the party would reward small businesses that hire new workers.

“We can do this!” Dougherty said. “If we work together and pull together in the spirit of the Jack Layton we can make this a good place to work and a great place to live.”

He said the NDP would implement a Buy Ontario policy to ensure public money is spent in Ontario to create Ontario jobs. “We need to grow Ontario’s economy by rewarding companies that create jobs for Ontarians,” he said.

Companies that create jobs and invest in plant, machinery, computer technology and skills training would be rewarded under the NDP’s plan, which includes lowering the small business tax rate. “It’s all about creating local jobs,” said Dougherty, “because we recognize there’s a real jobs crisis going on here.”

Dougherty took some time off from a service call in the Pembroke area to visit the picket line at Algonquin College to express support for the support workers who have gone on strike there. “It’s wrong to ask janitors and secretaries to take pay cuts while giving away tax breaks to the most successful corporations,” he said on the first day of the strike.

“Their struggle is everyone’s struggle. These workers are striking because more and more of them are being pushed into part-time work due to provincial cutbacks, all to pay for corporate tax breaks. There’s a lot of this going on, and it’s a big part of the jobs crisis.”

OPSEU union steward Terry Graham (left) discusses the community college strike issues with NDP candidate Brian Dougherty in Pembroke on the first day of the strike.

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