Mr. Speaker, I mention the name of the individual, who the Ottawa media have labelled “the puppeteer” because of his Rasputin-like control over the Liberal leader, to give a sense of the type of ruinous policies that would be implemented in Ottawa if Liberal Party insiders like Gerald Butts or Mike Crawley ever had their way.
The only green in that Ontario Liberal policy is the green that it put in the pockets of Liberal Party insiders like party president Mike Crawley, who received a $475-million contract to build industrial wind turbines nobody wants at prices nobody can afford. Worst of all, electricity from these wind turbines is then dumped, at a loss, to our economic competitors, costing Ontario taxpayers over $1 billion last year and countless lost jobs. Ontario's poor economic performance is dragging down Canada's economy.
Those are the findings in a recent study co-authored by economics professor Livio Di Matteo of Lakehead University. The study, “Can Canada Prosper Without a Prosperous Ontario?”, examines Ontario's shift from the economic engine of Canada to a have-not province that received $3.2 billion in equalization payments—handouts—from Canadian taxpayers in 2013-14. “Ontario’s poor record on GDP growth, employment and business investment reflects a damaged provincial economy that’s dragging down the national economy...”, Professor Di Matteo comments.
If Ontario adopts smarter policies focused on competitiveness and economic growth rather than interventionist government, it could unleash its private sector and improve Ontario's economy for the benefit of taxpayers in Ontario and across Canada. In other words, follow the lead of the federal government.
He goes on to say that Ontario's economic struggles over the last decade, which led to becoming a have-not province, receiving federal transfers instead of serving as a foundation for the national economy, has implications beyond its borders. Ontario is facing an $11.7 billion deficit in the current fiscal year as well as a manufacturing industry hobbled by high electricity rates.
Professor Di Matteo blames an incomplete transition to a more competitive world economy aggravated by high energy costs and interventionist government policies.
Ontario's failure to come to grips with its economic productivity and growth issues has serious implications for itself as well as the future growth of the Canadian economy.
“Ontario is a vast pool of human, physical and financial capital that is not living up to its potential”, Professor Di Matteo wrote.
As I have noted on previous occasions in this chamber, it is important for Canadians to take note of who is providing economic leadership in Canada. Only a Conservative government led by our current Prime Minister can be trusted with our nation's finances.
In Ontario, thanks to interventionist policies, seniors and others on fixed incomes are now faced with energy poverty, a new term in what was Canada's most prosperous province. Only a strong, steady hand on the finances of Canada by our Conservative government has prevented the Ontario economy from becoming something even worse.
The high level of youth unemployment in Ontario is a direct result of the Liberal electricity rate policy. It does not matter who—