Touring Ontario talking about jobs

By Howard Hampton
MPP Kenora-RR

Anybody reading the news out of Queen’s Park can be forgiven for thinking that the only thing that was happening was that the government was on its heels trying to defend its indefensible year-end slush fund.
Something else far more important was also happening.  NDP Leader Howard Hampton was touring the province, visiting manufacturing and resource dependent communities building support for the NDP’s Job Protection Act.
This tour has been going on since Christmas, and Howard has visited every region of the province, from Ottawa, Cornwall and Smiths Falls in the East, to Kenora, Sault Ste Marie and Timmins in the North.  In the last two weeks alone, Howard was in Thunder Bay, in Brantford, in St. Catharines and in Windsor, talking to workers, those who have lost their jobs, and those whose jobs are threatened by Dalton McGuinty’s non-existent manufacturing and resource sector jobs policy.
Howard visited these communities to show workers they have not been forgotten at Queen’s Park, that there is one party that has their interests at heart and is willing to push their interests to the forefront of the public policy debate.  The NDP has done this by pushing forward with its Job Protection Act.
The Job Protection Act is modeled on similar legislation from British Columbia.  The most important part of the Job Protection Act is the creation of a Jobs Commissioner.  In B.C., the Job Protection Commissioner, operating with only a small staff, helped preserve the survival of threatened industries, companies and jobs. The commissioner was involved from the get-go, helping threatened industries pursue policies and initiatives that would ensure their long-term survival, initiating government intervention when it was warranted and bringing workers and management to the table in order to resolve difficulties and keep plants open.
Over the 15 years that the Jobs Commissioner operated in British Columbia, before the current Liberal government cut the position, over 75,000 jobs were saved.  That’s a sterling track record of success. After four years of Dalton McGuinty doing nothing to protect Ontario’s vanishing manufacturing and forestry jobs, Ontario’s NDP believes that the kind of positive, proactive approach a Jobs Commissioner would bring is exactly what Ontario needs.
During Howard’s tour, one message that came through loud and clear from Ontario workers was that a Jobs Commissioner would be very welcome.  When Howard visited Smiths Falls in March, workers at the Hershey Plant who have been told that the plant is going to close in the next year, expressed dismay that they couldn’t get management to the table to talk about alternatives to a plant closure.  A Jobs Commissioner would have the tools to get Hershey to the table.

When Howard visited Hamilton Specialty Bar, workers there told him about how they have been working with management to find a new buyer.  What they need is help from the government with pension and loan guarantees and in restructuring the company.  A Jobs Commissioner would be able to bring those things to the table.
 
What the NDP is offering with this act is part of the solution to Ontario’s manufacturing jobs crisis.  Last week, the NDP led the debate on this act in the Ontario Legislature.  With the help of workers in this province who have been part of Howard’s jobs tour we managed to convince MPPs from other parties to support it.  Now we need to hold their feet to the fire, and convince them that passing the NDP’s Job Protection Act needs to be a priority, needs to be pushed through committee and needs to be voted on again and enacted before the end of this legislature.