An exclusive conversation with the Premier of Ontario.
By Thomas S. Saras
Dalton McGuinty, is not an ordinary politician. This is something the reader realizes when he thinks that this is the third straight mandate he recently received from the Ontario voters. For a politician of our thought times this is more than on ordinary mandate, it shows the trust of voters to his political skills and his ability to lead. I am quite sure that Dalton McGuinty, with this present mandate he is writing history.
This interview contacted in his office and always the Premier welcomed me with his well-known smile. Taking this opportunity I want to thank him for this honour.
Q. Premier, these are harsh economic times for the Province and for the people of Ontario. One might say we are passing through rough waters. What is it that your government has done to provide some sort of security to Ontarians?
A. We find ourselves at a time in history that is filled with challenge and overflowing with opportunity. Challenge to be found in an uncertain global economy, slow economic growth here in Canada and in Ontario and we have a deficit. A big deficit which makes up the challenge. The opportunity is that we can make some changes as to the way the government works. We can improve the quality of services and introduce new efficiencies so that they become more affordable so that we can guarantee to our children and grandchildren that they will have good quality schools and good quality healthcare, just as you and I are enjoying today. So there are a few things already to build on our strongest economic advantage. First of all we have said that we remain completely committed to full-day kindergarten. We have known for a long time now, studies have shown that children who get a good start in school are much more likely to finish high school, to go onto college, University or an apprenticeship. In order to get a better paying job, to enjoy a better standard of living and to be able to raise their family in relative comfort. All of that starts in the earliest years of school. This is why we are so committed to full-day kindergarten. At the other end in university and college one of the first things we did as a new government was to go ahead with our new 30% off tuition grant, to make sure that for our middle to low income families they can continue to go on to college and university because this is so important to all of us. If we are going to compete and succeed we have to build on our strengths, those are the skills and education levels of our people.
Moving forward now, we are working very hard to prepare our budget. In that budget we will be making choices. Some things are more important than others. If you and I were to knock on doors, families would tell you that the support and services that we deliver as a government are healthcare and education. So we have made a commitment to protect healthcare and education. We will say yes to some things and no to other things. For example we are now questioning whether or not we should be spending $345 million every year to support the hoarse racing industry in Ontario. At a time when we have to make choices, if we have to choose between healthcare or hoarse racing or education and hoarse racing, I know where families would want us to make our choice. So we will continue to be informed by the values that Ontario families have. They want us to be fair. They want everyone who works in the Public Sector to be part of the solution. So we have said to our teachers, for example, we need to you to be part of the solution so we are asking you to accept a wage freeze. We are saying to our doctors they need to accept a wage freeze. We will be saying to all our Public Sector partners we need you to accept a wage freeze. You may have heard Tom, that I announced today that MPP’s are going to freeze their wages for two more years. That is five consecutive years of wage freeze for MPP’s. It is important that we be seen to be leading by example. So I know that Ontarians are prepared for this challenge. They know we have to make some difficult decisions. They understand that it is all about choices. We are going to work as hard as we can to ensure that we protect healthcare, protect education, find ways to grow the economy and make sure that we are fair.
Q. Mr. Premier, this province used to be the machine that was leading Canada’s economy. Nowadays we are seeing that some companies are leaving Ontario and returning to the United States. The economy seems like it is going backwards.
A. We are still net beneficiaries. Every year we still gain more people who come here than leave to go to other parts of the country or the world. There is a natural flow of people in and out of the Province of Ontario and this is a good thing. We are not closed off to the world. I will take my own kids for example, I tell my kids, and sure I would love it if you worked in Ontario but if you decide that you want to work someplace else in Canada or the world then all the power to you. Where ever you go though be proud to be an Ontarian, a Canadian. I am okay with that. I was recently in Kitchener/Waterloo and met some young people there from five or six different countries that are coming to Ontario to work here. I was also just in Thunder Bay at another research lab. People there are from the east, from African, Russia, USA the Ukraine, so every year we continue to draw in more and more people who are excited about their future here in Ontario.
The other thing I should tell you Tom is that we are still the number one destination, the number one choice for immigrants who are coming to Canada. Their first choice is Ontario by far. I think we are getting more people coming to Ontario than all the other provinces combined. So we are still a big draw.
Q. The Federal government states that new immigrants who arrive in Canada are choosing to go to other provinces and less are coming to Ontario.
A. We still receive more immigrants arriving in Ontario than all the other provinces put together. I will have this confirmed (Brad you will confirm this for me). So we are still the number one destination. What we want to do now with the Federal government is that we have created a new “Expert Round Table”. You may have heard something about this. We are asking eminent Ontarians to give us their best advice so that we can together approach the Federal government and say, you know you have a certain relationship you developed with British Columbia and Quebec, and well we want a special relationship here in Ontario too, so that we have more say, more authority over immigration.
Q. Mr. Premier, the day you were with Premier Sauret, you were asking the federal government not to touch the monies that will eventually be given to the Provinces. We also know that the federal government is facing problems in the future and of course they are trying to control their own budget. How do you think they will give money to the provinces and at the same time cut down on their own deficit?
A. Let me tell you what we are doing here in Ontario. We are not going to do what the previous conservative government did. They took some of their responsibilities and downloaded those onto municipalities and the municipalities had to raise their taxes. So this was of no advantage to Ontarians themselves. So we said to the municipalities we will not do this to you. We will find a way to manage our financial affairs in a way that does not hurt other governments. The federal government in the 1990’s, when they attacked their deficit, they did it in a way that hurt provinces. So I am saying to the Harper government, do not do what has been done in the past. Work with us so that together recognize that there is just the one taxpayer, lets find a way to work together to tackle our fiscal challenges and find efficiencies.
Q. Sir, as you stated Ontario is the number one choice for immigrants. Eventually we will be facing the possibility of cutting services. This is one of the things you want to control you cannot continue to spend. The opposition is accusing you of free spending policies. I am asking you what is your government’s plan to help newcomers.
A. First of all I have heard the charge that the Ontario government spends a lot of money. But on a per capita basis Tom, we spend the lowest per person in Canada. All, ten provinces. So we have been using taxpayer dollars very efficiently. We also have the second lowest tax burden in the country. So we are very responsible in terms of the level of taxation we have and how much money we spend. Let’s understand that immigration is really important to us. We are nearly at a point now Tom, that the growth in our labour force is entirely dependant on immigration. If we want to grow this economy we want to make sure that we remain attractive to immigrants and that we have the necessary supports in place to make sure that immigrants become as strong as they can as quickly as possible. That’s why the federal government owes us over $2 million on an outstanding agreement, which they have been refusing to pay us. And that money by the way does not go to our government; it goes to our settlement services. Agencies in the communities who take on responsibility for everything from English as a second language to some basic job training, how people find housing etc… all these kinds of things that is really important to all of us. I am confident that there are ways to find savings in government that does not get in the way of our ability to provide support to new Canadians. Because when they do well it grows our economy.
Q. You referred to our English as a second language program, are you willing to continue them the way they are or are you looking at cutting some of the services?
A. Well, I leave this to the Finance Minister to make decisions about where we what to spend our money. I cannot speak to that specifically, but what I can say again is that making sure we have the necessary supports in place for our newcomers is very important to all of us and we want to make sure that we continue to do this.
Q. Mr. Premier as I walk the streets of our great city, I see many older people begging for money. This is something that I have not seen before. I believe that this shows a problem with our social services. Are you aware of this and if so what is it that you can do?
A. I think Tom, that one of the most exciting opportunities before us and I have not yet talked about this publicly yet, is the transformation of our social supports. I spoke about the Ontario disability support program and Ontario works and a whole bunch of other ones. Now we have asked a couple of people like Francis and Amir Shaikh to give us their very best advice. Don Drummond provided us with some preliminary advice. But I am convinced that if you take a look at all the money to be found in the system, that it is not being used as efficiently as possible and we are not doing enough to help people who find themselves in need of support to given them the necessary training. Overwhelming the people in the social systems are telling us, “I just want a job; I did not choose to go onto Ontario works”. Now for many of those people Tom, they need training. They are not ready to go into the work force right away. So we need, with a small investment, we can given them the necessary skills so that they are much more employable. I am convinced and this is something governments have talked about for at least 20 years and there is a lot of money that is eaten up along the way before it gets in the hands of those who find themselves in need of special supports. So we look forward to receiving this report and that we look forward to taking some assessment steps.
Q. At the same time we have the Drummond report who has asked your government to cut down on support and services. So it seems to be a very complicated situation. How is your government going to overcome this?
A. We will answer that of course in the budge. But one of the things we said for example Tom, is that over half the money that we spend in government it goes into salaries. So now we are saying to our teachers, we have worked well together, very well together as partners and we have better schools today, better education today now I need for you to take a pay freeze. Now we are saying to the doctors that we need you to take pay freeze. We are saying to all our public sector partners, half of the money goes into salaries so we have to freeze our pay and we are leading by example as you know, we have announced a pay freeze making it five years in a row now.
Q. European politicians I believe have gone a bit further than a pay freeze, they have agreed to a pay cut in Italy, France and Germany. But for people who are being paid at a lower salary see that politicians have also cut their pay and would be quite encouraging.
Based on my opinion allow me to ask you the question in case that the American dollar increases in value and our dollar devaluates, does your government worry about a similar situation?
A. Well, if our dollar comes down this is helpful to our manufacturers here in Ontario because it means that when we export our goods they are more affordable. A high dollar makes our goods more expensive for the world to buy. So that would not hurt us. But having said that Tom, we cannot build an economy on a low dollar. We have to build an economy on high skills, high education and high level of productivity. What does this mean? It means that our business need to invest in new technologies and new equipment and in training for the people so that we are working as smart as we can. It is not about working longer hours here in Ontario so that we are more competitive, but it does mean taking advantage of new technologies. The latest thinking with respect to how we manage our business and grow our businesses and make sure the people that we are using are as smart as they can be. So we will do our part to provide good colleges, universities and good apprenticeship opportunities. Even when they get into the work place we are asking employers to keep investing in them, give them some new training opportunities, keep them smart and working at the cutting edge.
Q. Yesterday the Toronto Council decided to ask you not to allow Toronto to get into the European agreement for free-trade. To be honest with you I was surprised to hear a city wants to be excluded from an agreement that nationally will be done with the European Union.
A. Well we are working with the other provinces and the federal government in a cautious and responsible way to see if we could in fact enter into an agreement with the European Union. We think that managed properly there could be considerable opportunities considerable upsides for the people of Ontario. We are not afraid of work. We are confident that on a level playing field we can compete and we can win on the basis of our talent and the basis of our inherent strengths as Ontarians and Canadians. So we will be very careful going down this road to make sure that we are not going to compromise ourselves here. But we are confident at this point in time enter into an agreement which is good for Ontario.
Q. This is your third term as Premier. Previously you were in good standings, but this time for the first time you are facing a minority government and you cannot be in full control of your own problems. How do you feel?
A. First of all, it is a tremendous honour for me to serve again as Premier. It would have been nice to have one more seat, but it was not there for us. It means that there are some differences and you have to look for ways to include the opposition to do things so that they can see some of their policies in government legislation. We have to create more opportunities and reach across the aisle to each other and to work together. A real important question for us to always ask is, what do Ontarians expect of us? I think they expect for us to find some common ground. Maybe not all the time but certainly frequently, find some common ground and find a way to make progress on their behave. It is not really about the Liberals or the NDP or the Conservatives, it is always about the people of Ontario. And they want us to find a way to make progress for them. I think everyone sees the economic and fiscal challenges and we have different ways of tackling that but the really good news is that we all understand that we need to tackle it.
Mr. Premier, I thank you once again for taking the time for this interview. On behalf of the members of the Ethnic press and our readers allow me to tell you that we always appreciate hearing from you.
Thomas S. Saras, is the President and CEO of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada and Editor-In-Chief of Patrides, N. American Review.
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