Times are tough for (almost) everyone

By Ben Eisen
Policy Analyst
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Working for the Canadian government has been a sweet deal for a long time. In addition to job security, outstanding benefits and generous pensions, federal employees are paid, on average, much higher wages than workers in other sectors of the economy.

Although most people know that government workers are highly paid, it is less well known that the gap between government employees and everyone else has grown steadily over the past 20 years. The growth of government salaries relative to the rest of the economy is a costly trend which, if it is not stopped, represents a serious threat to Canada’s long-term fiscal health.

Ontario’s economy cannot prosper without a vigorous manufacturing sector

Formet Industries, St. Thomas

Posted by Ian:
Thanks to Serge Lavoie for the heads up on this positive look at this region’s manufacturing base. With plants and factories shuttered the length of South Edgeware and the Ford plant teetering, let’s hope that indeed the industrial engine is just idling.
So, here is the key question posed by the Toronto Star:

Without a revitalized manufacturing base, Ontario has little chance of a healthy economic recovery that delivers the good jobs and high productivity we need for sustainable prosperity.

So a key question as we face a federal election some time in the next 12 months is which party, Conservative or Liberal, can deliver the most effective manufacturing strategy for the province.
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11.2 per cent and rising

It’s Thanksgiving, but Londoners have no reason to be thankful for the latest job numbers.

Unemployment in the London-St. Thomas area edged up in September for the tenth straight month — to 11.2% from 11.1% — despite a surprising drop in both the national and provincial rates.

“London is threatening to become the land that recovery forgot,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist for BMO Capital Markets and a London native and University of Western Ontario graduate.
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Recession over? Come visit St. Thomas

By HANK DANISZEWSKI, SUN MEDIA
Maybe Mark Carney should take a stroll along South Edgeware Road in St. Thomas before he declares this recession over.

Last week the governor of the Bank of Canada predicted our economy would start to grow again this summer after three consecutive quarters of shrinkage.

But head out to the small cities and towns surrounding London and that prediction elicits a lot of head-shaking and rueful laughter from people who doubt that good times will quickly return to this area.
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An improved Employment Insurance program would provide a better stimulus to the economy

OTTAWA – An improved Employment Insurance program would provide a better
stimulus to the economy than anything the federal government has tried so
far, says Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti.

He was responding to the release by Statistics Canada of labour force
figures for June 2009, when a net of 47,500 workers lost their full-time
jobs. There are now about 1.6 million unemployed Canadians, an unemployment rate of 8.6%. Fewer than half of the unemployed are actually collecting benefits due to rules, regulations and obstructions embedded in the EI system.

Navistar under scrutiny

The Ontario government will go after Navistar International Corp. if it has failed to meet obligations it made when the province gave it $30 million in assistance to keep its Chatham truck plant open six years ago, Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello says.

“They do have obligations with us and they’re going to have to meet those obligations,” she said. “We’re reaching out to the company now, and we know that’s important.”

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As jobs go, so do political fortunes

“St. Thomas, London, St Catharines, Oshawa – a lot of people who voted Conservative last time around are unemployed right now,” said Peter Woolstencroft, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo, which is located in one of the province’s key auto-making regions.Mr. Woolstencroft said the difficulties being experienced by those same voters may explain why Michael Ignatieff is pushing so hard for an extension of unemployment benefits.
He also sees the Liberals at least modestly bouncing back in the area.
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A Train That Is Leaving the Station

Auto workers in Detroit should be learning how to build and service electric cars powered by hydrogen or new battery technology. Laid off construction workers should be learning how to install solar panels or how to insulate buildings to save energy. Unemployed bankers could be learning about counting carbon emissions and about how to reduce those greenhouse gases and use credits to help others do likewise. These are all skills that will be in great demand as the economy recovers, not just for a few more years of pollution-based prosperity, but for generations of sustainable growth to come.
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Open letter from Bill Sandison re: employment opportunities

Time being of the essence I have elected to communicate with you in the most expeditious manner.
I would like to begin by thanking Joe Preston, Member of Parliament for Elgin-Middlesex-London and Hon. Steve Peters, Member of Provincial Parliament for Elgin-Middlesex-London for their
unbridled commitment to all constituencies and their unwavering support to the City of St. Thomas.

Economy becalms wind farm expansion

Erie Shores Wind Farm

Posted by Ian
Wind turbines have been a familiar signature on the East Elgin landscape for several years…in fact you don’t have to drive far out of St. Thomas to spot them on the horizon. However the prospect of a wind farm in the west end of the county appears to be a casualty of the world-wide economic meltdown. More info below and to visit a blog dedicated to this controversial new-age technology visit wind farms

By Sun Media
The economy is being blamed, in part, for the delay of an expansion of the Erie Shores Wind Farm west into Elgin county.

AIM PowerGen, the developer of Erie Shores Wind Farm in Bayham and Malahide, recently announced plans for expansion are being put on hold. AIM developed the concept of Erie Shores, optioned land and sold the concept to the Clean Power Income Fund to build. Erie Shores has since been purchased by Macquarie Power and Infrastructure Fund.
Full story.

Action centre gives Sterling workers hope for the future

Posted by Ian
“You made the mistake, why should we suffer. Why should the
people of St. Thomas suffer, the taxpayers as well as the employees?”
Fighting words from Maurice Beaudry aimed across the bow of top brass at Daimler AG, the parent company of the soon-to-close Sterling Truck plant.And Maurice knows of what he speaks, because in his former position as manager of the Economic Development Corporation in the early 1990s, he played a leading role in convincing Freightliner to locate in St. Thomas. Read his full comments at Maurice Beaudry speaks out .

And below, an update on how workers are coping with the plant scheduled to be shuttered this spring.

© Copyright 2008, Sun Media Corporation
St. Thomas truck plant will close in March
BY NORMAN DE BONO

The way Rob Belore sees it, there is some hope.

As Sterling Truck in St. Thomas prepares for its March shutdown, its action centre is helping laid-off workers find a job or go back to school.

During recent weeks, the centre has hosted dozens of businesses and organizations that have made pitches to its workforce.

Fixing Canada’s political mess

By Preston Manning
President and CEO
Manning Centre for Building Democracy

The situation is now well known. Partisan overkill by the government (attempting to kill the public subsidy to political parties) leads to partisan overreaction by the opposition (the creation of a coalition to bring down the government). The coalition must justify its partisan reaction on other grounds so it claims to have formed because the government has no plan to address the deteriorating economy.