Monthly Archives: October 2009

10.20.09
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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath slams McGuinty’s Navistar inaction

Queen’s Park
date: October 19, 2009 – 4:00pm

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is slamming the McGuinty government for doing precious little to prevent Navistar from moving truck production from Chatham to Mexico, despite a massive infusion of public dollars.

“More than $60 million of hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been shovelled into the Navistar truck plant in Chatham,” said Horwath during today’s Question Period.

“As a thank you to Ontarians for their generosity, Navistar has shifted production to Mexico, and laid-off all of its 1,200 Chatham workers. When will this government stand up to Navistar and demand it live up to its obligations to Ontario workers and Ontario taxpayers?” she asked.

Horwath added that it appears the McGuinty government has pretty much given up on holding the company to account for its actions.
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10.19.09
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Ontario farmer to tilt at wind turbines in court

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TORONTO — A farmer on a small island in Prince Edward County, Ont., who said he fears the constant swooshing of wind turbines will harm his family’s health launched a legal challenge Monday against Ontario’s wind power plans.

Ian Hanna said his application for judicial review, being called the first of its kind, is his latest appeal to the government after petitions failed to stop plans for five turbines about 900 metres away from his property on Big Island in the Bay of Quinte.

The community of about 100 homes will be overwhelmed by the turbines, he charged.

“My parents taught us when we were growing up that we should stand up for what we thought is good and right and whether that’s for my family or for my neighbours, I intend to do that,” he said.
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10.19.09
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Ford commits to new vehicles at U.S. plants, no such progress for St. Thomas Assembly Plant

Ford Motor Co. (F-N7.570.152.02%) has promised the United Auto Workers that its U.S. plants will receive a flurry of new vehicles, transmissions and other work during the next few years, while refusing so far to allocate new products to two Canadian plants.

Three Ford assembly plants – in Chicago, Louisville, Ky., and Wayne, Mich. – will begin building new vehicles in the next two years, and a commercial van called the Transit Connect that is now imported from Europe will be built at a UAW plant if North American assembly becomes necessary, according to investment commitments contained in a new contract between Ford and the union.

“The company reaffirmed its commitment to the UAW and its manufacturing presence in the U.S.,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s group vice-president of global manufacturing, said in a letter to UAW officials that is part of the new contract.

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10.19.09
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Canada’s Largest Solar Farm Opens in Ontario

Stone Mills Project Helps Province Become North American Solar Leader
TORONTO–(Business Wire)–
Canada’s largest solar farm is now producing power in the township of Stone
Mills, near Napanee – paving the way for Ontario to become a solar power leader
in North America.

This new green energy supply will help support Ontario’s elimination of dirty,
coal-fired generation, which is Canada’s single largest climate change
initiative. With two more large solar projects expected to come on line by the
end of 2009, Ontario will join the elite ranks of North America’s leaders in
installed solar capacity.

First Light Solar Park – currently the largest-scale commercial solar farm
operation in Canada – is a joint venture between SkyPower Corp. and SunEdison
Canada. With more than 126,000 solar panels spanning across 90 acres, this farm
is expected to generate more than 10 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable
electricity in its first year — enough to power 10,000 households.

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10.17.09
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Teachers promoting environmental biases in classrooms

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October 2009

By Tim Ball
Senior Fellow
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

My grandson is five years old. After his second week in school, he asked his father what he was doing about global warming.

Think about that for a moment. Does anyone believe that a five year old can even understand the controversy surrounding the science of global warming, let along question what he is being told?

Rather than teaching my grandson the knowledge he will need to succeed academically – analytical skills and open mindedness, among others – his teacher is spending time indoctrinating him with her beliefs on global warming.

I am outraged. As Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, said, “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man,” and classrooms today are definitely practicing what he preached.
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10.17.09
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Be proactive and rectify a dangerous situation

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Our municipal officials have had a relatively easy go of it when it comes to fielding criticism from a disgruntled electorate. Sure, every member of council, Mayor Cliff Barwick included, fields calls and emails from upset residents on a weekly basis.
That is about to change Monday evening as former mayor Janet Golding turns up the heat as she stands before council to demand action on a matter no alderman has had the moxie to confront — unsafe crosswalks.
The Times-Journal headline two weeks ago today lays it on the line, “Two crosswalk lines … ‘mean nothing.’
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10.16.09
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CAW won’t agree to strike ban in new Ford deal

Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza says Ford Canada shouldn’t expect the same concessions that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) won in recent talks with its union in the United States including a ban on strikes over wages or benefits.

“Obviously we watched the U.S. negotiations closely with the UAW because of the competitive challenges we have from one country to the other,” Lewenza said in an interview Friday.

The CAW says Ford Canada intends to slash its Canadian manufacturing presence from 13 per cent to eight per cent of total North American production. Ford currently has no plans to build vehicles at its St. Thomas, Ont., plant beyond 2011.
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10.16.09
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Times are tough for (almost) everyone

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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.
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10.15.09
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‘No role’ for government in Navistar labour dispute

WINDSOR, Ont. — Despite investing millions in Navistar’s Ontario operations, the provincial government won’t intervene in a labour dispute that has seen Navistar International shift production from Chatham to Mexico, Sandra Pupatello, minister of economic development and trade, said Wednesday.

“The Ontario government has no role to play in the discussions between workers and the employer,” Pupatello said after addressing an automotive outlook conference at Caesars Windsor. “What is important is that we’ve created an opportunity for there to be significant investment in the Chatham area and in the University of Windsor. Our investment is geared toward R&D — that is creating the next generation of products coming out of Navistar and in supporting training costs for employees in Chatham.”

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