Personally I would prefer to be somewhere else when Christina and Sue-Ann take opposing sides on an issue because I know it will a no holds barred discussion not withstanding the fact that I rate them highly on the same level of Blatchford and Coulter. On this issue I would prefer the jobs stay in Ontario and with all the hysteria about the economy I would think that all bidders would be sharpening their pencils and their would be concessions on both sides...labour and management.
TTC's $1.3B question
Christina Blizzard: The TTC has contorted its deeply flawed bidding process so the $1.3-billion contract for streetcars will almost certainly be awarded to foreign companies. Why are we sending good jobs out of the province when our manufacturing sector here is hurting? We should spend tax bucks here at home.
Sue-Ann Levy: The TTC already did ... in the form of a whopping $710-million sole-source contract for 234 subway cars to Bombardier, rammed through by Mayor David Miller, all cloaked in secrecy and controversy. Is that what we want again? A slam dunk for Bombardier, just because it is located in Ontario, with no idea of whether the price is competitive?
Blizzard: We need a Buy Ontario policy that requires 50% of public transit vehicles to be built here. Two-thirds of the cost of TTC vehicles is paid by the feds and the province. Why should taxpayers in Thunder Bay fork out for transit in T.O. if there's nothing in it for them? Bombardier has a plant in New York state so it can bid in the U.S. If we had the same policy, it would force foreign companies to locate here -- along with jobs.
Levy: Buy schmuy. I listened to the TTC officials and their out-of-touch chairman Adam Giambrone blow hot air about the specs for the 204 LRT vehicles in August as if the money will drop from the sky. Then the other shoe dropped. No money has yet been committed by the feds or the province
Blizzard: In the GTA alone, the province is shovelling $17.5 billion of Ontario taxpayers' dollars into mass transit by 2020. That's not exactly lunch money. And while latte-loving politicians in T.O. may prefer fancy Parisian streetcars, places like Thunder Bay are hemorrhaging jobs in manufacturing and forestry. What kind of suckers would we be if our hard-pressed tax bucks went to pay workers in Mexico and Europe?
Levy: Geesh, Chris. Now you're starting to sound like CUPE blowhard Sid Ryan. Your arguments seem suspiciously like those of the union-loving socialists at Silly Hall, who talk incessantly about the need to keep jobs in Ontario when it means more union members to support their re-election bid. Their tongues were tied, however, when officials decided to order the city's new garbage bins, at $50 a pop, from a company in the States.
Blizzard: C'mon, Sue-Ann. You've gotta stop seeing left-wing conspiracies under every toadstool. Giambrone has said it's "not the obligation of the TTC to do province-wide economic development." Why not? What better way to save the jobs of laid-off auto workers? They used our bucks to buy U.S. garbage cans? Now they're trashing hard-working Canadians by sending their jobs overseas -- by streetcar.
Levy: That's the problem -- the unions always come first in the equation. Toronto commuters now pay 71% of the operating costs of the TTC out of the fare box. All they care about is a safe, affordable and reliable service that is good value for the money. They'd also like a seat every now and then. I'm betting they don't give a hoot whether those seats are manufactured in Paris, Mexico, Timbuktu or Thunder Bay.
Blizzard: No, people come first -- and jobs. Domestic content rules force manufacturers like Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom to invest in plants here. Bombardier has factories throughout the EU and the U.S., partly so they can sell into those markets. We need to force foreign companies to invest here and not send jobs abroad.
Levy: Perhaps this could be the first mission of the mayor's new Invest Toronto corporation designed to increase foreign investment and promote "desirable" jobs in Toronto. Oops, I forgot. Hizzoner feels those so-called "desirable" jobs should come from the pharmaceutical, bio, film, food manufacturing and "arts and thinking" industries.
Blizzard: "Thinking" industries? Huh? I'm talking real jobs. Hizzoner needs to take his head out of his armpit. Look around! This is the biggest transit infrastructure deal in the world. It's not just Bombardier that wins. The steel will come from the Soo. Smaller companies will provide parts. They'd be crazy to send the work overseas.
Levy: It is ironic the one venture Hizzoner endeavoured to destroy -- the Toronto Island airport -- has been responsible for a turnaround at Bombardier's ailing Downsview plant. Porter Airlines has taken delivery of 10 Q400 planes built in Downsview. Another six are on order. That's worth $500-million U.S. I'm not about to hold any tag days for Bombardier.
Blizzard: Oh, so as long as Torontonians get their trendy little airline, who gives a hoot that the rest of the province is suffering? The Downsview plant may be doing fine. In Thunder Bay, Bombardier is the second largest private sector employer there and employment is down by almost half from a year ago.
Levy: You may want to save the entire province but why should Toronto taxpayers give a hoot about bailing out the good burghers of Thunder Bay? Torontonians are busy enough trying to keep up with all of the new taxes, fees and levies Hizzoner keeps imposing on them to keep their own city afloat.
Blizzard: Why don't you give it up, Sue-Ann? You've acknowledged Canadian workers are good (Bombardier's Porter Airlines planes). If the honest hard work of people in this province is good enough for the private sector, it's good enough for T.O.'s tax bucks.
Levy: That's my point. If the workers at Bombardier are so darn efficient -- and the company's costs can stand up against other foreign bidders -- then let them at it. All I'd like to see is an open tender and an open competition. That way taxpayers will know the deal was fair. That's not too much to expect, or to ask.
Blizzard: Sue-Ann, get off that heartless, union-bashing, right-wing soapbox! I'm tempted to say you can either buy Canadian and create jobs here or pay welfare. But northerners aren't like the wussies in T.O. who expect government handouts every time they lose their job. They have more pride.
Levy: Sister Chris, why is it "heartless" to expect companies to compete with each other to deliver the best value for our tax dollar? If the unions working for Bombardier want the tender for the LRT vehicles so badly, they'll do whatever they must to win the bid and keep their jobs -- even granting some concessions, heaven forbid. If Bombardier Thunder Bay is a lean, mean, efficient machine then this argument is dare I say, academic.
Blizzard: Don't you care about all those people who've been thrown on the scrap heap in northern Ontario? Families are being ripped apart. The TTC is fiddling while workers are getting burned. It makes sound economic sense to get those people back to work, paying taxes and spending dough in this province.
Levy: If you're so worried about scrap heaps, perhaps you should think first about Toronto taxpayers who might soon find themselves there if the politicians and bureaucrats don't start paying more attention to the failing fiscal times around them. All I'm suggesting is jobs are vulnerable in Toronto too. Keep taxing people and businesses to death -- with no attention to the bottom line -- there might soon be no one to ride those 204 cars you want Bombardier to build!
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