NDP Leader Howard Hampton and MPP Gilles Bisson say the decision of Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government to vote down the NDP’s “Buy Ontario” plan is an insult to the province’s 200,000 unemployed manufacturing workers.

“It’s apparent that while New Democrats support ‘Buy Ontario’, the McGuinty Liberals support selling-out Ontario. It’s disgraceful that the McGuinty Liberals stood proud to vote down a bill that would protect well-paying jobs and has been endorsed by labour and business groups across the province,” asked Hampton, shortly after the vote took place.

The bill, proposed by NDP MPP Gilles Bisson, would have required Ontario municipalities and transit authorities to give a preference to mass transit vehicles whose final assembly is done in the province and where at least 50 per cent of the total dollar value of the contract to purchase the vehicles is attributable to parts or labour originating in Canada. The bill was defeated by a vote of 41 to 20.

“Other jurisdictions all over the world already have this kind of legislation in place. Here in Ontario we had it until 2005 when the McGuinty government scrapped it,” said Bisson.

Under the McGuinty Liberals, Ontario has lost more than 15 per cent of its manufacturing jobs – taking a whopping $6.6-billion in wages out of Ontario’s economy.

The “Buy Ontario” initiative is a key component of a bold jobs stimulus plan introduced by Hampton earlier this year to prevent the further loss of Ontario’s manufacturing jobs. The plan’s other components include:

· The immediate investment of available Federal funds in hard hit communities;
· The creation of a Refundable Ontario Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit that would apply to all manufacturers and processors and provide an added incentive for development of green technology and innovation.