Sorry it is long but interesting and i skipped the introduction

Friday, 26 February 2010 19:25

Tonight, I want to speak to you about our plan to build a strong Ontario economy. The economic storm that hit Canada, hit our province hard. It hit our businesses, especially our manufacturers. And it hurt Ontarians.

We have lost a lot of jobs. For those families, it’s been a struggle to pay the mortgage or the rent and sometimes, even the groceries.

Cette récession a constitué un défi majeur pour l’Ontario. Et notre gouvernement a répondu avec un plan comportant plusieurs mesures majeures:

This recession has been an extraordinary challenge for our province. So, our government responded with extraordinary measures. I’ll just speak about a couple of those very briefly:

First, we are investing over $32 billion in infrastructure.

We are investing in roads, bridges, public transit and energy retrofits for our schools like never before. This is creating over 300,000 jobs. Getting money into the hands of families, where it is needed. And, our course, this will stimulate our economy while we emerge from the recession.

Secondly: today, we are together supporting over 26,000 unemployed Ontarians in their choice to go back to school. Our new “Second Career Program” is a first for Canada because it supports long-term training — up to two years. That way, unemployed Ontarians can get all the training they need to get the best available job, instead of just any old job.

Helping people and communities hurt by the recession is an important responsibility our government takes seriously. But we also have to build for the future. We have to lay a new foundation for growth.

This recession is winding down. Economists are debating when, exactly, it will end and what the recovery will look like. I’m reminded of something the great Ontario-born economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, once said. He said, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”

We do know one thing for certain about this recession: The world on the other side is different. Our world has changed. Our largest trading partner, the U.S., has been severely weakened. Our dollar is now high. Economic growth is now slow.

After years of balanced budgets, governments, including ours, are running deficits. And just around the corner — next year, in fact — our baby boomers start to retire. We boomers represent over one quarter of Ontario’s population.

And as we age, we will create huge pressures for health care. Huge pressures on our children to support us.

Notre monde a changé. Et nous avons également besoin de changer. Nous avons besoin de devenir plus fort.

Our world has changed. We need to change, too. We need to grow stronger.

As my dad used to say: “It’s time to get cracking.” This is not a time for the faint of heart. Or the ponderous. But it is a time that rewards those who step forward smartly and boldly.

Now some see a new world that threatens us. I see a bright future that beckons us.

The choices we make together during the next five years will be decisive in the life of our province. In the lives of our children.

Here’s how, working together, Ontario will shine. Shortly, in our Throne Speech, we will be introducing our new plan. It’s a plan to build a strong Ontario. We are calling our plan “Open Ontario”. Because we understand: Growing our economy – growing stronger – requires that Ontario be open to change, open to opportunities, open to our new world.

“Open Ontario” is a five-year plan. It’s a plan to build that new foundation for economic growth and jobs. We’ve already begun that work with two important initiatives. We are modernizing Ontario’s tax system and we are building a clean energy industry. We are modernizing our tax system to make us more competitive and create more jobs.

Income taxes for Ontarians were cut on January 1. I hope you noticed. We are also reducing corporate income taxes and eliminating the capital tax this year.

And we are moving ahead with the HST. Not because this is easy. If it were easy, other governments would have done it. We’re doing it because growing stronger is no longer an option for Ontario. It’s a must.

Independent economists tell us our tax changes will create nearly 600,000 more Ontario jobs over the next ten years. And, you know, I haven’t met a single mum or dad — a single grandmother or grandfather who doesn’t want to make sure there are jobs for us today and jobs for our kids tomorrow.

Jobs are also why we are aggressively building a clean energy industry in Ontario.

Al Gore calls our new “Green Energy Act”: “The single best green energy program on the North American continent.”

Our program will create 50,000 new Ontario jobs. Samsung’s recent investment here is just the beginning. It’s the biggest investment of its kind in the world: $7 billion – 2500 MW of clean energy from the wind and the sun, 4 manufacturing plants, 16,000 jobs.

Just as we created so many Ontario jobs selling cars to Americans, we will now do the same by supplying them with Ontario-made wind turbines and solar panels.

Now, the rest of our “Open Ontario” plan will be announced in our Throne Speech. But here is some of the thinking, and the questions, that are behind our plan: Let’s start with education.

We’ve lowered class sizes, raised test scores, improved the graduation rate and made room for 180,000 more of our kids in post-secondary programs. This September, our new full day learning program for four and five-year-olds, a first in North America, begins in nearly 600 schools.

So, we asked ourselves, what’s next for education in Ontario? Well, today, 62% of Ontarians have completed post-secondary education. That’s one of the best rates anywhere.

But we also know that 70% of all new jobs demand post-secondary education. So, we are going to have to reach higher. Our plan will speak to that.

We also looked at what other places in the world are doing. Here’s an interesting fact: Australia’s third largest industry is international education — it creates jobs. So, why wouldn’t you and I get serious about competing for international students?

We have everything we need to succeed, including a diverse, welcoming population and first class colleges, universities and apprenticeship programs. Then we could use the funds this generates to help expand our schools for our kids and create jobs.

We could attract the best and brightest from around the world to study here. Some would stay and help us build our economy. Some would leave and become our partners in the global economy. Either way, those students would win: And so would Ontario.

Here’s another way we can win. In the next 20 years, worldwide demand for water will be 40% greater than supply. That means a lot of places are going to need new ways to use less water and purify polluted water. Well, as it turns out, for several years now, Ontario has been quietly growing one of the biggest clean water industries in all of North America. Our services and technologies are being sold here at home and around the world. And that means great Ontario jobs.

The Conference Board of Canada recently estimated the global market for water technology at over $450 billion with annual growth of up to 15%. So, why wouldn’t we organize ourselves to grab an even bigger share of that market for Ontario? We’re doing exactly that for clean energy. Why not for clean water? So our “Open Ontario” plan will look at ways to build on our clean water strength.

And speaking of strength, here’s another one of ours, often overlooked: Financial services. Our banks are now widely recognized as the most reliable in the world. Our brand has gone platinum. Our expertise is undisputed. Toronto is now North America’s third largest financial centre. Accounting for 350,000 jobs. Ontario-wide, in the industry, we’re at 625,000 jobs.

I could go on. But here’s my point: Our industry has achieved this impressive global stature with each player. Banks, insurance companies, investment funds and pension managers, all of them, working independently of each other.

Well, why couldn’t we come together, industry and government, and commit ourselves to a strategy to make Toronto, Ontario, Canada one of the world’s elite financial centres? It seems to me there’s never been a better time to make this move. So our “Open Ontario” plan will speak to this as well.

There’s a lot more to our plan, but I’ll conclude with just one more opportunity. This, too, is all about jobs and a stronger economy. It’s specific to the north. And it builds on the tremendous success of Ontario’s first diamond mine opened by De Beers in 2008.

You may have heard of the “Ring of Fire,” and I’m not talking about that Johnny Cash song. I’m talking about an area in the Northwest of our province. An area of incredible mineral wealth.

We have just recently learned that it may contain the largest chromite deposit in the world. Chromite is a key ingredient in stainless steel. There is no substitute for it. There is no North American producer of it. This is the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in over a century. And the world is hungry for stainless steel.

Just think of your new water containers and think of the demand in India and China as they build new homes, new office towers, new hospitals and new schools. So why wouldn’t we take full advantage of this multi-billion dollar economic opportunity? And why wouldn’t we ensure that everybody, our Northern communities, our mining sector, our First Nations benefit from the thousands of new Ontario jobs this will create? And why would we not do all this in an environmentally responsible way? Again, the answers will be in our “Open Ontario” plan.

L'Ontario ouvert sur le monde» c’est un plan ambitieux. Un plan qui est inspiré des valeurs et des aspirations des Ontariennes et Ontariens.

In the coming weeks and months, you’ll hear m ore about our plan. It’s an ambitious plan. A plan informed by the values and aspirations of Ontarians themselves. Above all, it’s a plan driven by a powerful, noble motivating force that has inspired every generation of Ontarians.

We have always said, we will do whatever it takes to secure a bright future for our children and our grandchildren. If that calls for hard work, we will do it. If that calls for discipline, we will do it. If that calls for setting aside our differences, combining our efforts and building on common ground, we will do it.

We will do as our parents and grandparents did before us. We will make our children proud.

Now, my friends, let’s get cracking.

Thank you.

Dalton McGuinty