In the auto industry, we have found that for every job created directly in a car manufacturing plant, there are eight other spin-off jobs created. When we create 1,000 jobs, we’re actually giving the province 8,000. From those 1,000 jobs in Windsor, you would have gotten 8,000 jobs. Imagine what that would have done to the high unemployment in Windsor. When we miss out on 1,000 jobs, we lose 8,000.
Let’s come up with an Ontario-wide auto policy, and let’s lower our hydro rates. That will actually help manufacturers.
But I also believe the members across from me need to step up and support our workers. Windsor is a great example-that money that won’t go back into our province and the jobs that won’t go to people who desperately need them. That’s exactly the same story we saw over the last 10 years: 3,000 jobs were lost in St. Thomas-we’re talking about the auto sector-2,000 were lost in my home local in St. Catharines and 3,000 in Oshawa.
Every other country in the world is supporting manufacturing because they know how important it is to the overall health of their economy and putting good-paying jobs-it doesn’t matter where it is. It could be in the United States, it could be in Brazil, it could be in Sweden, it could be in Finland-they’re all doing it. I’m encouraging this government to do the same thing.
Our children and grandchildren need that to happen. We can pass a motion like this and be done with it or we can fight to protect our manufacturers, our exporters and the workers who depend on the sector right here in Ontario for the betterment of our kids and our grandkids.