Protest group blames Wynne, hydro rates for lost jobs
Roadshow heading to Queen’s Park talks electricity costs, fleeing businesses
Claiming the provincial government’s policies are chasing businesses and jobs out of Ontario, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation drove into Windsor Thursday with a truck advertising the Kathleen Wynne Moving Company.
“People really enjoy satire, and this comes with a sharp message,” said CTF Ontario director Christine Van Geyn.
Whether it’s making electricity less affordable, implementing new cap-and-trade green taxes, increasing the minimum wage or spending on “corporate welfare” by subsidizing some businesses and not others, Ontario businesses are fleeing the province, said Van Geyn.
Since the brightly coloured moving van first visited Richmond Hill Oct. 3, those on the tour have been garnering high-fives at Tim Hortons stops as well as hardship testimonials along the way, said Van Geyn.
The tour ends at Queen’s Park in Toronto at noon on Monday.
The high price of electricity is one of the biggest concerns being expressed, said Van Geyn, with Ontario businesses openly wooed by jobs-hungry jurisdictions outside the province where the cost of power is much lower.
Accused by the Liberals of being “right-leaning,” Van Geyn said her organization is non-partisan and is, in fact, dissatisfied with the hydro files of all the main political parties.
“I’m disappointed by every political leader in the province,” she said, adding none of the three main parties has “clear policy positions” on what to do about Ontario’s high hydro rates.
Van Geyn said the province could “simply stop signing” new green energy contracts as a way of saving on electricity costs. She said the government could also stop spending millions of dollars on energy conservation promotion. Ontarians, she said, already have incentive enough to cut back on their power usage because of the high cost of that power.
Emblazoned along the side of the 16-foot moving van is a drawing of the premier and the make-believe moving company’s motto: Kathleen Wynne Moving Company — Helping Businesses and Families Leave Ontario.” The CTF is urging Ontarians to sign its online petition at www.wynnesmovingcompany.ca.
With less than a year to go before the next provincial election, the Liberal Caucus Service Bureau already had a party response news release sent out Thursday ahead of a CTF news conference along Windsor’s riverfront.
“So here’s the truth: business is booming,” the Liberals stated, adding that the “right-leaning” Canadian Taxpayers Federation had been caught “distorting the facts (again).”
The Liberals pointed to Windsor’s unemployment rate being “the lowest it’s been in years,” and cited predictions by Canada’s five biggest banks that “Ontario will continue to show strong growth this year and beyond.” Ontario is third in North America in attracting investment, and the top two, New York and California, are both “in the process of raising their minimum wage to $15 per hour,” the party added.
Van Geyn, whose Windsor appearance attracted a dozen local supporters, said Ontario has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.