“Ontario
is still the number one destination for immigrants” Dalton McGuinty.
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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