PCS push plans to create jobs
Party leader joins candidate at private educational academy
Ottawa South Progressive Conservative candidate Matt Young was in his riding Tuesday to tell Ontarians his party has the best plan to create jobs.
Speaking at Algonquin Careers Academy on Bank Street, the candidate in the Aug. 1 byelection said the best way to create jobs is to lower taxes, balance the provincial budget and give the private sector “the confidence to open up a business and hire people.”
“If you’ll just drive up Bank Street, you’ll see that, time and again, small business is the backbone of this riding,” he said. “We need to give those people reasons to go out and hire people and the way you do that is you change the government that’s been bad for business and you replace it with one that will be good for business.”
Standing next to Young in a classroom full of computers, PC Leader Tim Hudak outlined Ontario’s biggest challenge, as he sees it: “There aren’t enough jobs out there and we have a Liberal government who continues to put their own self-interest ahead of the interests of Ontario taxpayers and Ottawa taxpayers.”
But the academy’s president, Des Soye, said more than 90 per cent of students get jobs within six months and, in some programs such as pharmacy technician and personal support worker, every single student is guaranteed a job.
Soye said mostly mature students choose ACA — and private institutions in general — because the relatively short time it takes to complete a program means they can get back into the job market quicker.
“Those jobs are there, it’s just about being willing to take them,” he said.
Al-hadi Mahasneh, 39, and his wife, Amani Mahasneh, 32, are both taking the pharmacy technician course. After they finish classes in one month, followed by a two-month practicum, Mahasneh said he’s not concerned about his prospects.
“He’s not planning to make $100,000 a year,” Soye said, “but there is a career path and he’ll make a reasonable living.”
Still, for Young — who called himself “the only choice for change” in Ottawa South — the challenge remains and the solution is clear.
“We have to get back to basics, which is focus on delivering services people need, not services that they don’t need. Not dogmatic programs like green energy, not overspending. Let’s get back to the basics, deliver what people need; business will follow and deliver the jobs.”
An all-candidates meeting is planned for 7:30 Wednesday morning at the RA Centre, 2451 Riverside Dr.