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.
