October 29, 2012

NDP wants investment in Ontario skills

KELLY LAPOINTE

staff writer

Respecting Ontarians’ skills and talents is the way to grow the province’s economy, said the NDP’s provincial leader at the recent 55th annual convention of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

“Instead of lowering our ambitions and cutting our wages, let’s respect our skills and invest in our people,” Andrea Horwath told the delegates.

She said the key to growing the Ontario economy is growing the middle class.

“Instead of a society where everyone gets a fair share, we’re turning into a province with a small group of haves and a lot of people who have been squeezed right out of the middle class and right into the ranks of the have nots.”

Hundreds of delegates filled the Delta Toronto East Oct. 18 to 21 to attend workshops and hear presentations leaders in health and safety, education and politics.

Growing that middle class and the economy means investing in workers and skills training.

“Our apprenticeship system in this province is one of the best tools that we have to get us there, but we have to keep that system strong. Some argue that it’s time to water down the apprenticeship system. That comes hand-in-hand with arguments that we should be more like Alabama, lower our wages, squeeze more people out of the middle class.”

Reducing journeyperson to apprentice ratios does not mean more skilled trades professionals, noted Horwath.

“It means fewer apprentices with enough hours to actually complete their apprenticeships.”

Those same voices are doing their best to undermine the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT), and “they’re missing the point,” she said.

“It’s a body that serves useful roles by respecting the trades, by offering an unbiased forum to set trade ratios, by offering the public a mechanism for complaints and evaluating trades for mandatory licensing.”

Horwath said the argument that lowering corporate taxes and taking pay cuts leads to growth ignores the reality on the ground.

“There’s no doubt that we need to be competitive, but they also look at whether they’ll be able to hire people to do the job,” she said.

“Whether it’s investments in transit to build a mobile and educated workforce...or an electricity system that can supply affordable, reliable electricity, infrastructure investments are vital to the province’s economic health. Moreover, they provide real economic activity in the short term and build a better climate for prosperity in the long term.”

This was an NDP priority in the budget and Horwath said though there is ongoing investment, “short-sighted” decisions, such as the divesting of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission “is going to set us back in years to come.”

She said the NDP plans to keep such issues on the agenda.

“We’ve seen other jurisdictions use their government procurement policies to generate real, sustained and shared prosperity in the jurisdictions, but only when governments have worked hard to promote sustainable planning, build reliable infrastructure and create value-added jobs. We know that that can also happen here.”

Horwath spoke shortly after Premier Dalton McGuinty made his address to the Building Trades. McGuinty stepped down and prorogued the legislature on Oct. 15 amid a series of scandals, including the cancellation of gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville.

At the convention, Horwath called it an “unjustifiable shuttering” of the legislature.

The NDP has launched a new website and online petition “to encourage Ontarians to send the Premier a message and get MPPs back to work,” www.mppsbacktowork.ca

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