Budget fails forestry workers, say Steelworkers

NEWS RELEASE

UNITED STEELWORKERS

************************* Ontario budget fails manufacturing and forestry - Steelworkers

TORONTO - (March 25) - The Ontario Liberal government failed again today in its budget to take serious action to deal with the crisis in manufacturing and forestry, said United Steelworkers' (USW) Ontario/Atlantic Director Wayne Fraser.

New budget initiatives for the sector were limited to small-scale corporate tax cuts and training programs to be offered to around 20,000 of the 200,000 Ontario workers who have lost their jobs in manufacturing and forestry, Fraser said.

"Once again, Premier Dalton McGuinty has refused to consider the kinds of significant steps that could reverse the damage," Fraser said.

"Working families and hard-hit communities are being left to struggle on their own," he said.

The budget even fails to follow through on modest suggestions from the premier's own hand-picked adviser on manufacturing, David Ramsay, whose recommendations were quietly slipped into the budget's supporting documents, but not acted on.

The budget documents call on the federal government to extend to Ontario an existing investment tax credit for manufacturing firms in the Atlantic provinces.

However, Ontario refuses to follow the lead of such provinces and Quebec and Manitoba and institute its own investment tax credit.

McGuinty also has ignored calls for "buy Canadian" rules to ensure that provincial infrastructure spending benefits manufacturing workers in Canada and Ontario.

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