By Jamie Barrie O ntario has jumped out in front of the pack as Canada’s fastest growing economy. First quarter results peg their growth at a three percent annu- alized rate. That pace also beats development in all other G7 countries as well. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is quick to point out this is no fluke citing similar gross domestic product results for the last quarter of 2015. Wynne said she was pleased to see “stronger growth than we had expected in our budget, and that’s a very important signal that Ontario is on the right track.” Better than expected exports and increased household spending boosted the numbers in the first quarter of 2016. The low Canadian dollar has had a positive impact by making Canadian goods cheaper to import for other countries. Wynne is adamant that people need to take notice pointing out “Ontario is growing at a faster rate than Canada, the United States and all other G7 coun- tries.” Wynne also preached diversity in growth saying “it was widespread. It wasn’t just focused in one sector.”
The Premier wasted little time connecting the growth in economic activity to her government’s plan to eliminate a $5.7-billion deficit in fiscal 2017-18. “We’ve beaten our targets year over year, and we’re on track to eliminate our deficit next year,” she said. NDP finance critic Catherine Fife is not so sure. She suggests that the economy isn’t as robust as Wynne would lead people to believe. Fife says the money needed to balance the budget will come in large part from healthcare saying “their promise is to balance the books by overcrowding our hospitals, firing thousands of health-care workers, and creating a $3-billion backlog in critical repairs to hospitals.” Fife also believes the devil is in the details adding “the number of people working in temporary jobs, without benefits or even sick days, has increased more than twelve times faster than people with stable, permanent jobs.” Premier Wynne insists that Ontario will lead growth over the next two years in Canada resulting in jobs all across Ontario. Wynne has targeted Ontario’s jobless rate to support the hard work by her government to reach this point. She added “our unemployment rate in Ontario has been below the national average for more than a year, and in June it fell to 6.4 per cent, and that’s the lowest since September 2008.” Wynne recognizes the need for all parts of Ontario to prosper and she pointed out “these job gains are not confined to the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area.” Manufacturing has long been the backbone of Ontario’s economy. In recent years, lower wage jurisdictions have per- suaded companies to move production there away from Ontario. Charles Sousa is the Liberal Finance Minister and he says the province will not be competing for those jobs. He added “Ontario has become a top destination for foreign direct investments many years running.” His approach is to replace the lost jobs with better ones in emerging sectors such as agri-food processing. Premier Wynne is quick to point out that she realizes Ontario is not operating in a bubble but at the same time is encouraged by the direction they are headed given the uncertainty of global markets. She added “I don’t want to leave the impression that I think that Ontario’s operating in a vacuum and somehow we’ve figured out something nobody else has figured out.” Wynne states she is proud of where Ontario is financially and the prospects for the future.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • AUGUST 2016
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