Siemens (Westinghouse) in Hamilton just announced it is closing its plant there and moving to North Carolina....500 people out of work...
"Thanks for the tax cut,Stevie,but were still outta here!!!"
Dalton McStupid fiddles while Rome burns...
Ontarians need jobs not welfare: Hampton
Thu, 2010-03-11 16:32
#52
welder
Sun, 2010-03-14 15:38
#53
[url=http://ontariondp.com/en/mcguinty-liberals-will-allow-abitibi-bowater-to... Liberals will allow Abitibi-Bowater to sell “power dams”[/url]
QUEEN’S PARK – MPP Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River) says the McGuinty Liberals will put 2,000 paper mill jobs at risk in Fort Frances, Thunder Bay and Iroquois Falls if they allow Abitibi-Bowater to sell off the power dam that generate low cost electricity for the mills.In the Ontario Legislature today, Hampton asked the McGuinty Liberals to rule out Abitibi-Bowater scheme to sell off its power dams in Northwestern and Northeastern Ontario.
“The power dams generate low cost electricity which helps to sustain the three paper mills and more than 2,000 jobs in Fort Frances, Thunder Bay and Iroquois Falls,” Hampton said. “If the McGuinty Liberals allow the sale of these power dams, the mills and the 2,000 good jobs will increasingly be at risk,” added Hampton.
Hampton pointed out that the biggest reason paper mills have closed in Northern Ontario is because of soaring industrial hydro bills that many paper mills could not afford to pay. Paper mills that have their own power dams, and generate low cost electricity are the only mills that have been able to continue operating
It's good to be friends of the Liberal Government duh Los Ontariariario.
Tue, 2010-03-16 19:33
#54
[url=http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/779267--goar-have-the-poor-fallen... the poor fallen off the agenda in Liberal Ontario?[/url]
The biggest disappointment was Ontario's Speech from the Throne on March 8. It didn't contain a word about social assistance (also known as welfare). There was one passing reference to Premier Dalton McGuinty's goal of reducing poverty by 25 per cent by 2013. But beyond that, low-income Ontarians were overlooked.The final event in the cycle – the most important one – is the provincial budget on March 25. It will end the uncertainty about social assistance rates, affordable housing and subsidized childcare.
DAY-O!
Wed, 2010-03-17 10:36
#55
netsia
Since 'provinces' have to, or at least should-must foot the bills for all essential services & be able to see through all major infrastructure upkeep & new infrastructure development (and an awful lot is needed for these economies to catch up to, let alone be competitive with other economies), so I guess I think that provincial sales tax should be something like 40% on everything across the board, whereas federal taxes should be around 5% or less, and only on services that federal government is involved with, obviousy!
When an individual's personal income reaches somewhere above ~300k, they might be paying ~60% tax on their income... all 'businesses' paying only 40% tax, no matter their level of income, with maybe a break for start ups making less than 100k...
and, legalize & de-regulate all 'drugs' of natural origin but at the same time highly-extensively regulate while also legalizing all 'syntheti drugs' including chemical modifications & additions to natural origin 'organic' 'drugs'=consumable substances(a wide net yes!)...
I think that everyone, including for example people with downs syndrome, should=must more naturally want & have meaningful careers and that the word 'job' should be considered a 'dirty word' in reference to a person's gainful employment pursuits. I suggest this mainly as an antidote to how pathetically & disgustingly dumbed down society has become, this society steadily falling farther & farther behind most of the rest of the world now...
Is it the circles I move in, or perhaps the arrival of Springtime, that the word 'visioning' is often heard these days?
Wed, 2010-03-17 18:36
#56
There was work being done on social assistance reform in the McGuinty government, but I suppose the message has gone out that it's not affordable. Which in some ways isn't surprising but surely there are changes that could be made that wouldn't cost a lot of money.
Sun, 2010-03-21 13:55
#57
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18224]Ontario: Driving the Poor Deeper Into Poverty[/url]
>by Liisa Schofield and John Clarke
[u]Poverty in Ontario[/u]Social assistance rates in Ontario today have a spending power that is a full 55% below what it was in the early 1990s. A single person on Ontario Works (OW) would need to get an increase of $300 a month to be back at 1993 levels. The gap between the minimum wage and what a single person on OW receives is greater under McGuinty than at any time since the introduction of the Canada Assistance Plan in the 1960s. Food bank use is setting new records and far more people are experiencing economic evictions than during the days of Mike Harris. For the poor, the Common Sense Revolution of Harris has not ended or simply been consolidated. Dalton McGuinty has intensified it.
Well meaning commentators and critics often try to convince governments to deal with poverty by pointing out that the cost of dealing with its consequences are greater than what it would take to provide adequate income to the poor. The proposition is not untrue but those who advance it miss the point. Income support is provided only to the extent that those in power have recognized that outright abandonment would generate a level of unrest and social dislocation that would be too great to contain. On this basis, welfare is a reluctant concession that has always been set at the lowest levels possible. You can't force people into the worst jobs on offer nearly as easily if there is a humane and decent system of meeting the needs of those without jobs. This Ontario Government, its endless promises of measures to reduce poverty notwithstanding, is fully committed to retaining and increasing the ability of the welfare system to convince the poor to take their poverty in the form of a paycheque.
Sun, 2010-03-21 16:44
#58
This squeezing of welfare recipients that McGuinty is doing is something else. The guy is suppose to be Liberal and has spent a lot of money on his pet projects but welfare didn't get it's cost of living adjustments. I look at the figures and cannot figure out just how a welfare person lives.
John Clarke's statement about governments not wanting to cause unrest is very flowery but the social reason welfare is supported is because with a few unlucky breaks it would be you or me there.
Sun, 2010-03-21 16:48
#59
Hope. It's about killing hope for a large section of the population who tend not to vote. There are people who vote against their own interests when they vote for Bay Street parties, thinking that the wealth will rub off on them some day. And then there is a large underclass who've given up altogether on democracy. Personal debt is at unprecedented levels across Canada, and Sir Tony Benn said that people in debt become hopeless people, and hopeless people don't vote.
Sun, 2010-03-21 16:51
#60
There was work being done on social assistance reform in the McGuinty government, but I suppose the message has gone out that it's not affordable. Which in some ways isn't surprising but surely there are changes that could be made that wouldn't cost a lot of money.
Alberta has less poverty than the Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver because of a better economy. Grande Prairie has 7% child poverty compared with the Toronto's 32%. (Census) It doesn't cost. The governments should talk that up.
Thu, 2010-03-25 14:47
#61
[url=http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/784233--welfare-isn-t-broken-so-i... isn't broken so it won't be fixed[/url] Pinocchio McGuilty and overpaid do-nothings pledge to do nothing.
[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontarios-deficit-not-as-hig... budget deficit in Ontario's history[/url]
Sat, 2010-03-27 15:40
#62
[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/03/25/ont-budget-reaction.htm... six years, Pinocchio McGuilty finds Northern Ontario on the map[/url] Too little too late, says NDP opposition accusing Liberals of trying to buy 2011 votes
Tue, 2010-11-09 22:51
#63
[url=http://ontariondp.com/en/ontario-families-still-waiting-for-mcguinty’s... families still waiting for McGuinty’s HST to deliver jobs[/color][/url]
– Despite Dalton McGuinty’s promise that the HST will create 600,000 new jobs, Ontario has lost 34,000 jobs since its introduction, says NDP Finance Critic Peter Tabuns.
600,000? Really Pinocchio? It's a sign of an increasingly arrogant and out-of-touch government in Toronto.
Wed, 2010-11-10 00:05
#64
you are right about hopless people dont vote. The recent municipal election was the first election I didnt vote, and i have also just began to develop thousands dollar of credit card bills late last year due to a lack of full time employment.
I dont feel that politics matter to me. Nothing matters.
Wed, 2010-11-10 00:05
#65
you are right about hopless people dont vote. The recent municipal election was the first election I didnt vote, and i have also just began to develop thousands dollar of credit card bills late last year due to a lack of full time employment.
I dont feel that politics matter to me. Nothing matters.
Wed, 2010-11-10 00:25
#66
I know lots of people who are mired in debt, and they're mad as hell at the Harpers and McGuintys. We must seize the opportunity to vote against the corporate hirelings in government every chance we get, which isn't that often if elections are every four years.
Because not voting means you're allowing someone else to speak for you on the one day every four years that actually counts for anything. Don't let other people speak for you on election day. Hopeless and in despair, and especially that we abstain from voting is what the creditor-friendly Liberals and Tories want from us and that's all.
Fri, 2010-11-26 00:47
#67
[url=http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/897034--encourage-peop... people to work by cutting taxes for the poor, TD boss says[/url]
As the country emerges from recession, Ottawa should consider cutting taxes for low-income Canadians who are being hit by both economic restructuring and an inequitable tax system that “discourages people from participating in the workforce,” says TD Bank President Ed Clark.“The shape of the recovery will not leave Canadians equally well-off,” Clark told the Canadian Club in Montreal Thursday. “There is a clear risk that lower income Canadians will bear the brunt of the slow recovery.”
Lower income Canadians already face much higher marginal tax rates than higher-income Canadians, he noted, adding that high employment taxes also hit lower-income earners harder.
“We should encourage people to work — not discourage them,” he said in his speech marking the bank’s 150th anniversary in Quebec...
In addition to a tax system that disadvantages lower-income Canadians, Clark said Canada needs to improve productivity and address government spending that is rising faster than revenues.
Fluff piece. Our stooges would never do what he's suggesting, and Clark knows it.
Fri, 2010-11-26 01:15
#68
RevolutionPlease
There was the piece floated I believe by Hugh Segal in the Senate about starting with a $20,000 guaranteed income for those with disabilities that can't work and all I saw in the comments were people ignoring the article and just saying this is a disincentive to work. HELLO, these are people that can't work. It ain't just the stooges that are stooges, if you know what I mean. Long way to go.
Fri, 2010-11-26 01:55
#69
Senators are pulling our collective leg. The red chamber and modern democracy are entirely incompatible.
Mon, 2010-11-29 00:42
#70
[url=http://www.thestar.com/news/article/895781--increase-welfare-to-decrease... welfare to decrease hunger, inquiry hears[/color][/url]
Unlike some other provinces, hunger is on the rise in Ontario, in part, because social assistance rates have not been indexed to inflation, Tarasuk said. (The province did increase the maximum monthly Ontario Works rates by 1 per cent, starting December 2010.)
Fri, 2010-12-03 12:45
#71
[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/11/30/ontario-social-assista... to launch welfare review[/url]
Hmm? Is there an upcoming election in Ontario or something?
[url=http://www.canada.com/says+poorest+kids+Canada+falling+behind/3922271/st... says poorest kids in Canada are falling behind[/color][/url] Report places us 17th of 24 nations in ranking of kids' well-being
And those country rankings were developed before neoliberal meltdown in 2008. Talk about delayed reaction among our junior colonial administrativeship in Tronto.
Fri, 2010-12-03 12:46
#72
[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/11/30/ontario-social-assista... to launch welfare review[/url]
Hmm? Is there an upcoming election in Ontario or something?
[url=http://www.canada.com/says+poorest+kids+Canada+falling+behind/3922271/st... says poorest kids in Canada are falling behind[/color][/url] Report places us 17th of 24 nations in ranking of kids' well-being
And those country rankings were developed before neoliberal meltdown in 2008. Talk about delayed reaction among our junior colonial administrators in Tronto.
Fri, 2010-12-03 14:01
#73
Heard the November job situation on CBC radio 1 this a.m.
Ontario continues to bleed jobs, particularly the kind that pay something above mcjob rates, with benefits. Gosh we are a politically aquiescent lot, here in the east. But then, I suppose we should be proposing some sound ideas of just how to turn things around, eh? Not just complaining and quoting the statistics...and giving to the food banks.
Sun, 2010-12-12 15:51
#74
[url=http://www.lindamcquaig.com/Columns/ViewColumn.cfm?REF=134]Pay cuts for poor, tax cuts for rich[/url] Ontario's civil service wage cuts will subsidize effects of tax cuts for banks.
Instead of being asked to contribute to deficit reduction, the financial sector stands to be the single largest beneficiary of the province's corporate tax cuts.
Unprecedented budget deficit situation in Ontario, and Pinocchio's Liberals are cutting taxes for the most profitable corporations and banksters on the backs of workers in Ontario.
Sun, 2010-12-12 21:12
#75
quote from February, 2009:
Statistics Canada reported today that in January, Ontario lost 71,000 jobs, with Ontario accounting for more than half of Canada's job losses. Manufacturing was the worst hit, with 36,000 jobs lost in the sector. Ontario's unemployment rate rose to 8%, the worse since 1997.
That's just one month away from two years ago, and Hudak is gearing up to do a Harris re-run, depending on universal criticism of a Liberal government, even though he has nothing to offer by way of solutions to any one of a dozen problem areas. And Andrea can only point to money being wasted and the poor being charged unfairly for energy. There must be more positive ideas flown - like that of David Miller, who pointed to the need for more public transportation to aid the working poor.
And how does one bring a fossil-fuel-fed loonie back down to a level compatible with competition in Steve's "energy superpower?"
Sun, 2010-12-12 21:31
#76
And how does one bring a fossil-fuel-fed loonie back down to a level compatible with competition in Steve's "energy superpower?"
Well they could start a sovereign wealth fund as OECD economists recommended to Jimmy Flaherty some time ago. I think he stopped answering his phone and paying attention altogether since.
The Bank's sledgehammer as usual, George? I think jigging the interest rate is like dynamiting a lake to catch fish. It's not very sporting of them.
Canada is America's gas tank. That's our designated role in the "free" market scheme of things.
Sun, 2010-12-12 21:45
#77
I'm not sure that a Canadian sovereign wealth fund would make Canada look like a poorer place to invest and so lower the exchange rate for the loonie. : )
Sun, 2010-12-12 22:02
#78
I don't think so either, George. They've nationalised energy revenues in Norway, Venezuela, Russia etc. And big oil is still playing ball in those countries. Where else in the world can the transnational energy companies go to in an anti-tax huff? They can lobby a cosmetic gov in Warshington to bomb some oil-rich country on the other side of the world, but I think the Yanks are fresh out of political will as well as the means to embark on another shock and awe so soon.
I think it's a case that our bought and paid-for stooges continue to be bought and paid-for stooges regardless of what happens in the real world. It's a closed economy. NAFTA is a big joke, and Canadians will pay through the nose more than we are now to heat our homes and gas-up our cars. And it will happen a lot sooner than Canadians expect. Their way is rust and decay. It's broken.
Sun, 2010-12-12 22:08
#79
"There must be more positive ideas flown -"
Sun, 2010-12-12 22:50
#80
Well the way OECD economists explained it was that SWF is the best of both worlds. It would have an effect of deflating the loonie and helping Canada's legless manufacturing sector at the same time. And, a SWF could be used to finance social programs for this and future generations of Canadians - something they did not mention.
After years and years of giving away the fossil fuel baby, they have nothing to show for our energy export end of the resource exports economy except massive provincial and federal indebtedness to private sources/rich friends of the two parties monopolizing power. It makes OECD economists as well as myself wonder how they could achieve so little with so much natural wealth at their disposal. It's mind boggling. You'd almost swear they've been on the take for years and years or something.
And so with SWF, it would lessen their perceived need to take a sledgehammer to the entire Canadian economy by jacking up the prime rate every time there's a bit of inflation/prosperity leaking out of Alberta.
Mon, 2010-12-13 10:54
#81
[url=http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/newsfeatures/article/896293--child-po... poverty up in Ontario[/url] November
“The system should encourage people to fulfill their dreams,” she says. “But instead it traps us in dead-end, low-wage jobs.”
The Liberals would rather cut welfare cheques than invest in children(the future) or their parents subsisting on low incomes. It's sad.
Mon, 2010-12-13 10:55
#82
dbl post
Thu, 2011-03-10 19:13
#83
[url=http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/03/01/lawrence-solomon-ontario’s... unemployment rate could reach 10%[/color][/url]
Ontario’s unemployment rate is currently 8.1%. The addition of 50,000 green jobs, and loss of 185,000 jobs, would boost the provincial unemployment rate to 10%.
[url=http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2998670][color=blue]Hydro rates killing jobs[/color][/url]
Northern municipal leaders seek provincial solution to industrial sized problem
Former NDP leader Howard Hampton is pushing an independent power utility for Northern Ontario."I appreciate that Toronto has its own energy challenges, but they should handle their own energy challenges and let Northern Ontario handle our own energy challenges," he said. "We generate some of the cleanest and greenest electricity on the planet from falling water and we get some of the lowest costs on the planet.
"An independent Northern Ontario electricity authority would allow us to create jobs in Northern Ontario, contribute to the economy of the North and at the end of the day, it would be good for all of Ontario."
One of the reasons hydro rates have increased is the Green Energy Act, passed by the ruling Liberals. For example, producers of wind energy will be paid 13.5 cents for each kilowatt-hour produced by onshore wind turbines, 19 cents offshore, even though prices paid for electricity this year have averaged closer to four cents per kilowatt hour.
It should be run by the public. 13.5 cents? 19 cents? Let the gouging begin! "Green energy" is turning out to be a welfare program for rich friends of the party.
[url=http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Declare+Ontario+deficit/4388789/story.html]...'s debt will soar to [size=18]$237 billion[/size] under Liberals in 2011[/url]
Like drunken sailors. They're all Bob Raes now.
Sat, 2011-04-02 20:14
#84
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24081]Ontario: Austerity, Resistance and the Poor[/url]
On April 1, the Dalton McGuinty government, will introduce a new version of the Special Diet benefit for those on Social Assistance. This vital benefit, which provides up to $250 a month in additional income to people on assistance, has been accessed by tens of thousands of people over the last five years and has been the only means to alleviate the extreme poverty and ill health caused by grossly inadequate social assistance rates. The new system will be much more restrictive than the present one, with enhanced mechanisms of scrutiny and enforcement. All who presently receive the Special Diet will have to re-apply under the new set up. In a situation where access to medical providers is a huge problem for many poor people, this forced mass re-application under more stringent rules is a deliberate mechanism to deny the benefit to tens of thousands of people. The gutting of the Special Diet is taking place the same week that the government tabled a budget that provided an increase in social assistance rates below the rate of inflation and shortly after their previous decision to freeze the minimum wage this year. These attacks on the poor must be viewed as part of an intensifying agenda of austerity that seeks to decimate public services and impose a decisive defeat on the workers who deliver them.
Pinocchio McGuilty proves again that he and his Liberal Government are lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut during a downpour. They want runnin' outa Dodge on a rail.
Tue, 2011-12-27 07:15
#85
Increase in welfare rolls expected with Ford closing
Communities brace for impact of September shuttering
There are about 1,650 on welfare, or Ontario Works as it now is called, in St. Thomas this year. Four years ago, there were 874 cases - about 50% fewer."The trend has stayed up this summer. Usually it drops during the summer but it has not this year," said Arbuckle.
In Southwold, where the plant is located, residents were hit with a 7.3% tax hike, thanks to Ford.
"We would have had a minimal (tax) increase, cost of living," if Ford wasn't shutting down, said Suzanna Dieleman, treasurer for Southwold. "We do not have any other industry - they are it. We are just hoping now for the best."
Same old same old in Liberal Ontario.
Ontario's Public Debt in Uncharted Territory - $236.6 BILLION DOLLARS Liberals spending money like drunken sailors and nothing to show for it.