Ontario’s economic development and job creation minister was touting what he sees as business-friendly initiatives by the Ford government, when he spoke to the local business community Wednesday evening.
Vic Fedeli of North Bay spoke to the 70th annual general meeting of the Timmins Chamber of Commerce.
He said that when the previous Liberal government raised the minimum wage to $14.00 an hour, it was against the advice of a wide range of experts,including the Ontario Chamber.
“What happened? January of 2018, in one month we lost 50,000 jobs, just as forecasted by the experts,” said Fedeli. “And so we were able to freeze that at $14.00 to give you, the business community, a chance to catch up, a chance to catch your breath and that will save you $1.5-billion this year alone.”
Fedeli also pledged that the government will cut red tape stalling development of the vast mineral deposits in the northern region known as The Ring of Fire.
The Nipissing MPP noted that on his first visit to the Ring of Fire in 2011, 250 people were doing exploratory work. By his fifth visit, there were only six caretakers on the site.
“We are going to work bilaterally with each of the First Nations and begin to do the environmental assessments and begin to build the road to the wealth that’s contained deep in the ground of the Ring of Fire,” he vowed.
Fedeli also spoke of cutting more and more red tape that is needlessly getting in the way of business and industry expansion, and thus economic development.