No more government cash for companies, Ford vows

PCs would lower taxes for all, not pick ‘winners and losers,’ leader says

NIAGARA FALLS— The honeymoon is over for corporate welfare in Ontario, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford said Monday on his way to visit v a packaging firm that got millions in federal aid.

It’s not fair that some companies get grants or loans from taxpayers while others don’t, Ford told reporters on a campaign swing through wine country.

The day was aimed at wooing voters away from New Demo- crat MPP Wayne Gates in the sprawling riding of Niagara Falls and Jim Bradley, a veteran Liberal MPP and former cabinet minister in neighbouring St. Catharines.

“Instead of picking winners and losers, we’re going to lower business taxes for everyone, we’re going to stabilize business hydro rates, we’re going to cut red tape and we’re going to bring good jobs back home,” Ford said on a hotel terrace overlooking the Horseshoe Falls.

The businessman and former Toronto city councillor took the message to a lunchtime meet-and-greet with supporters at Scorecard Harry’s, a sports bar in nearby Port Dalhousie. Wearing a “Make Ontario Great Again” baseball hat made by a friend, local resident Craig Bowman said he likes Ford’s foccus on improving the business climate.

“He’s believable and he’s honest,” said Bowman. “He’s like Trump. What he says, he’s gonna do.”

Ford also slammed Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government for selling surplus electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions at a loss and said Ontario companies should be able to benefit from that cheap hydro, although he did not explain how rate structures would be altered to accomplish this.

Ford has promised to cut corporate income taxes to 10.5 percent from 11.5 percent.

In Cambridge on Monday, Wynne said Ford’s opposition to goverment aid to business is “ridiculous.”

“One of the reasons Ontario’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in 20 years is because we have worked with … businesses to make sure we retain and attract jobs,” she said.

At Queen’s Park, the Conservatives have long sounded the alarm on grants and loans, say- ing the process for deciding who gets what is not transpar- ent. Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk found the Liberal government gave $2.3 billion in grants and loans to 374 companies be- tween 2004 and 2015 with 80 percent of that money going to firms “invited to apply” by the government.

Ford also visited Stanpac, a packaging company in Smith- ville taht got $4.5 million in federal aid toward a $46-million expansion, creating 50 jobs.

Conservative officials said Ford scheduled a stop there because the company has opened another plant in Texas, where hydro rates are lower.

At an evening rally, Ford spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300, getting his biggest cheers for a promise to repeal Ontario’s sexual education curriculum. When Ford spoke about a controversial severance deal for Hydro One executives that he stop, shouted, “Lock her up!” Ford paused briefly and chuckled before moving on with his speech.