After
touring the province of Ontario for more than a month last September
debating the effect of the public financing of all faith based schools
and the theory of Creationism, the Ontario Liberals and some provincial
media have discovered that the manufacturing sector in the once powerful
"engine of Canada" is in trouble.
I
was in Toronto last week when Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke at the
local Canadian Club and, prior to the speech, he had a meeting with
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
"I
raised the issue directly with Mr. Harper as to whether his government
had any interest whatsoever in lending direct support to our municipal
partners," the premier told the media after the meeting with
Harper. "I think it would be fair to say he is not particularly
receptive to that approach." Well, I wasn’t at the meeting (nor
were most Ontarians) so I don’t know all the details. But that’s
exactly the point. The issues discussed at that meeting would have been
a great topic for, say a provincial election. During the last provincial
election, McGuinty had a perfect opportunity to engage Ontarians, the
media, and even the provincial Conservative opposition of John Tory in
an extensive and public debate about the future of the province of
Ontario. But he, and most media outlets, were more interested in
debating one issue (the public funding of less than four per cent of the
scholastic population) than talking about the future of the province.
The Liberals did put
forward many programs in their campaign platform but, because of the
tempest in a teapot that was the school funding issue, nobody remembers
them.
A
public debate over the future of the once most powerful province of the
Confederation was more than needed and appropriate during a provincial
electoral campaign.
Some
people at Queen’s Park probably still believe that Ontario had a
prominent role in the history of this country because of divine will.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Somebody once said that "the
rest of Canada hates Ontario and the rest of Ontario hates
Toronto." Well, I wouldn’t go that far. Still, I believe that the
leading role played by the province in shaping this country was related
to its capacity to funnel money into the Confederation.
Basically,
Ontario’s supremacy over other provinces has never been accepted, but
merely tolerated because of the need to get its money. Since the turn of
the century, however, things have been changing and, especially after
the arrival of McGuinty at Queen’s Park, the disconnect between
Ontario and the rest of the country is increasing.
The
reason? Very simple: McGuinty wants some of the money back (remember the
fiscal gap?), he doesn’t want to give more money to the nouveux
riches provinces of the East,
while the provinces of the West are becoming the economic engine of the
Confederation.
The
signs of the diminished influence of Ontario in the national political
and economic environment has begun to show all over. The former Ontario
finance minister Greg Sorbara was probably stunned when, last summer,
the Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, increased interest
rates a week after he specifically told Dodge that an increase would
have been very problematic for Ontario’s economy.
Well,
Ontario is losing jobs in the manufacturing sector, but the central bank
is more concerned about the sizzling economy in the rest of the country,
mainly Alberta, and the concerns of a potential increase of inflation.
The
economy still looks very good in Ontario, but the province is facing a
very bleak future: globalization is de-industrializing the province that
has built its prosperity on manufacturing and exports.
Corporations
kept milking our resources without looking at the future. Unions have
been very successful in fighting for high salaries for their people
without considering that other workers in other parts of the world were
doing the same job for much less.
Then
globalization came around and, guess what, thousands of high paying jobs
in the manufacturing sector have vanished and many more will disappear.
Last
week, McGuinty said that the problem can be solved easily, it’s just
matter of money. However, I have one question: once you get the money,
what are you going to do with it?
By
the way, if the idea to reduce by two per cent the GST and bring the
combined federal-provincial tax grab from 15 per cent to 13 per cent
(PST is eight per cent), why doesn’t the provincial government of
Ontario simply raise provincial taxes by the same amount that the
federal government lowered them? Why does McGuinty want the federal
government to collect the money for, say, the mayor of Toronto when he
could do it himself? He could leave the GST at five per cent, he could
bring the PST up to 10 per cent. The total would still be 15 per cent
and the pocket remains the same. It would only change the pickpocket.
