Let's Be Fair Top McGinty And The Left

When it comes to business it is a global economy and manufacturers have no choice but to go where they can make a profit but that place is not in Ontario which is ruled by unions and special interest groups. But don't despair....politician's latest con job is "high paid GREEN jobs." I would be interested in hearing what those workers who sort our recyclables make....

Where's the brain trust, opposition asks

By DON PEAT

Must have been a helluva meeting.

A 16-member panel filled with business luminaries and struck over a year ago by the Liberals to advise on how to strengthen Ontario's embattled manufacturing sector has only met one time, the Sunday Sun has learned.

The council, including business heavyweights like Research In Motion's Jim Balsillie, was mandated to report directly to Sandra Pupatell, then economic development and trade minister.

Government press releases repeatedly tout the council as a treasure trove from which recommendations would flow on how government can help manufacturers create high-value jobs, attract new investment and boost innovation.

The 2007 budget touted the council as a way to "help increase the competitiveness of our manufacturers."

Eighteen months later, the council had only met once -- some time over the summer -- and it isn't planning to meet again until late October.

In a press release announcing the appointment, Pupatello called the council a "valuable addition to our manufacturing response and competitiveness strategy, which helps Ontario manufacturers innovate, compete and adjust to global restructuring."

"How could it possibly be a meaningful body that does anything that's going to really help if it only meets once," Progressive Conservative leader John Tory asked. "Why haven't we seen the results or reports of their one meeting?

Council vice-chairman Jayson Myers said that although they have only met formally once, council members "have been in communication and are working together."

"The idea here is to identify challenges and put forward solutions that can support Ontario manufacturing in the long-term," said Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. "We're talking to the government and talking to each other."

He said the group has analyses underway that will help them forge recommendations. Some of those recommendations will be pitched to the government in the hopes they'll add them to the 2009 budget, Myers said.

Pupatello, the newly minted international trade and investment minister, failed to respond to an interview request this week.

Tory said the council concept isn't a bad idea but with only one official meeting, it's "not for real. It's embarrassing for the people who are on it that this government thinks so little of it that it never meets."

NDP leader Howard Hampton called the council "another PR exercise."

"What should have happened three years ago was to sit down with labour, to sit down with representative manufacturing groups and municipal leaders and to hammer out a plan," Hampton said.

But Myers fired back:

"We've got some good research going, not just about what's going on here in Ontario but about what other jurisdictions are doing in support of manufacturing."