OTTAWA — Job creation is “job one,” says Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
Speaking to a luncheon crowd in Ottawa, Hudak said Tuesday that if he wins the June 12 provincial election his government would create 1,030,688 jobs by 2022.
“I’m sure the other leaders wish we had more jobs. But job creation isn’t about wishes. It’s about choices,” he told 150 people at the Chateau Laurier hotel.
“I am absolutely committed to making job creation job one so our kids don't have to go to Alberta to start a career and a family.
At the same time, a Tory administration would shed 100,000 civil service jobs over four years to streamline government.
According to a technical backgrounder released by the Conservatives, baseline growth, based on the previous decade’s average, would be 523,200 jobs over eight years.
Lowering corporate taxes from 11.5 per cent to 8 per cent would generate an additional 119,808 jobs.
Ending wind and solar energy subsidies would spark another 40,364 jobs and cutting the regulatory burden of red tape would mean an extra 84,800 new private-sector positions.
Revamping Ontario’s restrictive apprenticeship programs would mean 170,240 jobs.
Hudak believes another 96,000 jobs would come from public transit expansion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
In his second mandate — after the 2018 election — he would reduce personal income taxes to generate 47,080 jobs.
That tax cut is contingent on balancing the books, which Hudak promises to do by 2016-17, a year ahead of Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne's schedule.
Further restraint in the public sector — beyond the 100,000 cuts in the first four years — would create 43,184 jobs between 2018 and 2022.
Finally, developing the Ring of Fire chromite mining project in Northern Ontario would spell 4,400 new jobs and an extra 1,592 from participating in the New West Partnership Trade Agreement.
Hudak's team based their estimates on analyses from the Conference Board of Canada and Washington-based Benjamin Zycher Economics Associates.