‘Open for business’ signs unveiled
Ford says he’ll start slashing regulations so Ontario prospers
Signs proclaiming “Welcome to Ontario, Open for business” will soon adorn highways near border crossings in Niagara and throughout the province, unveiled by Premier Doug Ford as the three-day Ontario Economic Summit came to an end in Niagara-onthe-Lake, Friday.
“In every corner of the province, we are making Ontario open for business once again. And we’re not going to be shy about it,” Ford told the crowd of hundreds of business and political leaders from across the province.
The crowd erupted into cheers and applause as Ford unveiled the design for the new signs that will be installed in the next few weeks.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Ontario is open for business,” Ford said. “We want people to see it. And with the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, we want them to feel it as well.”
He said the legislation, announced earlier this week, will cut red tape for businesses that “is chasing jobs out of Ontario.”
“We have 385,000 regulations in Ontario. … We have a team together and we’re going to start slashing those regulations to make sure we create an environment to thrive and be prosperous in Ontario,” he added.
Ford also discussed his government’s decision to repeal Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces Better Jobs
Act — a move that led to a protest outside as Ford was speaking.
“The days of job-cutting policies written by people who have never even run a business, who have never had to meet a payroll are over,” he said.
“These reforms will cut red tape, grow our economy and create new and better jobs. They will make it easier for businesses to grow and hire new workers. They will make it easier for people to build their careers right here at home.”
Although Ford claimed that “no legislation in Ontario’s history has killed more jobs than Bill
148,” that claim has been disputed in the past. Niagara Poverty Reduction Network chair Glen Walker, for instance, said Ontario’s unemployment rate has instead declined in the year since the legislation was introduced.
Ford acknowledged that “not everybody out there supports making Ontario open for business,” adding that “there are forces in Ontario that had it good under this stagnant Liberal economy, who were happy seeing business close and freezing workers out of better jobs.”
Referring to recent vandalism of Labour Minister Laurie Scott’s constituency office in Lindsay, Ford said the “desperate intimidation tactics won’t stop us.”
After many years of holding the annual summit in NOTL, chamber president Rocco Rossi said it would be the last planned for the community.
“We are the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, and we have to start moving this around,” he said, adding next year’s event will be at a Toronto hotel.
“This has been a great OES, because you have made it so,” Rossi said. “The energy has been phenomenal.”