LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

Thursday 24 April 2008

Ontario economy

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Eleven hundred high-tech workers lost their jobs at Dell.

Interjection: Who’s the question to?

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It’s to the finance minister. I was getting there. Another 250 will be laid off in the same business park by Citel this June. This is devastating to the city of Ottawa. Thirteen hundred and fifty people will be out of a job and on the unemployment line this summer because of your lack of planning, your high taxes and your big government spending. Will the finance minister stop killing the high-tech sector and cut business taxes so we won’t lose any more jobs in the city of Ottawa?

Hon. Dwight Duncan: It is difficult for any family or community to lose jobs. There’s no question.

The government of Ontario is here to offer support. In fact, our training, colleges and universities rapid response team is already out. We have invested in skills training, and we’ll continue to invest in skills training to help those workers adjust. For instance, in this year’s budget which you voted against, we have $1.5 billion for skills training, which we think is important to respond to situations like this. We don’t agree with you that a cut in corporate—

(Hon. Mr. Duncan) ... against, we have $1.5 billion for skills training, which we think is important to respond to situations like this. We don’t agree with you that a cut in corporate taxes for a big oil company is going to help those workers. What we think we need is investments in skills training and in infrastructure, and to continue to work through the high-tech sector, for instance, on the various tax incentives that we have given them and that you voted against. We think that’s the proper response. We’ll continue to work with the community and the individual affected because this government cares and gets it, and that’s why we’re working with them.

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: While I support apprenticeship tax credits, it’s a hard pill to swallow when you learn that Dell got up to $4.2 million in apprenticeship tax credits just so they could lay people off. Ian Graham, a high-tech management consultant in Ottawa writes: “The cancellation of LSIF did a huge disservice to early stage businesses in Ontario.” Debbie Weinstein, whom I spoke with earlier today—a leading high-tech lawyer and former chair of OCRI—told CTV, “The Liberals don’t treat high-tech fairly.”Will the finance minister heed the warnings of Ottawa’s high-tech pundits and explain to this House why he created a crisis in high-tech by not properly planning a transition from LSIF, particularly now that we‘re in a recession because of his big spending and his high taxes?T

he Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Minister of Finance.

Hon. Dwight Duncan: I would point out to the member opposite that we’re eliminating corporate taxes for high-tech, in terms of new investment in Canadian technology. Those are the appropriate responses. We are investing in skills training, we are investing in infrastructure and we acknowledge and agree that any family that faces unemployment, that any family faced with the kinds of challenges that those families at Dell are faced with, deserve a government that gets it and supports it. That’s why we’re moving on skills training and that’s why we’re investing the way we’re investing. We reject your solution of corporate tax cuts for big oil companies. We want to invest in high-tech. We want to invest in infrastructure. We want to invest in education. I just wish that that member wouldn’t have voted against the very programs that are going to help those people from Dell, who unfortunately lost their jobs this week.