Green Energy & Blue Boxes Killing Ont. Jobs?

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Heinz Closes 100 Year Old Plant - 740 Jobs

Slowly but surely, Ontario public sector policies from Green Energy to Blue Boxes - are driving jobs and growth out of the province

An article in the Financial Post points to the impact on both growth and jobs that the province's billion-dollar cost pass-alongs that are routine in the energy field and in union negotiations are having on business in Ontario.

This article should raise a few red flags and sound some alarm bells for all those people who think that government policy can't sooner or later kill the incentive for business to invest in an economy. The article points out it is not just the cost of funding an unwieldy recycling system (Nanaimo could pay attention here), nor the higher cost of energy in the province (green energy comes at a cost), that causes companies to shut plants, curb production and eliminate jobs. It takes a host of bad government policies at the wrong time to force business to make dramatic changes.

The closure of Heinz is just one more in a list of Ontario plant closures which included Sklar Pepplar in Ajax, Navistar in Chatham and Baskin Robbins in Peterborough. It is noted that in the last ten years Ontario's government unions have grown by 300,000 while Ontario's private sector unions have seen a decrease of 100,000 members.

It is pointed out that Ontario's government doesn't seem to realize that growth comes from the private sector and that the public sector depend on the existence of a healthy private sector. In Leamington Ontario the town's unionized Teamsters employees were demanding 2% wage increases and other contract improvements. After Heinz said is was closing, the Town of Leamington came back with an offer: zero wage increase, no contract improvements. The Teamsters accepted.