Yakabuski Wants to Make Ontario Open For Business

John Yakabuski, Minister of Transportation and Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke is adamant on creating jobs in Ontario. He mentions that the Making Ontario Open for Business Act (Bill 47) will reverse some of Ontario’s employment and labour laws brought in by the Liberal party in November 2017 (Bill 148).

“Businesses were absolutely opposed and it was actually costing jobs” he said. The hot topic generated from this new act is that of the freezing of Ontario’s minimum wage, which will stay at $14 an hour until 2020. Yakabuski explains that increasing the minimum wage by 30% overnight was costing a lot of jobs. Businesses had to cut their staff’s hours making it harder for them to retain their employees. He says that the increase in wage gave certain businesses no choice but to increase the price of their products. Our MPP also states that this isn’t fair for our senior citizens who live on fixed income who are left to pay more for goods but didn’t see a corresponding increase in their bank accounts

After losing 50 000 jobs in January and 80 000 in August province-wide (most of them part-time), Yakabuski and his team, not only want this message to be spread in Ontario, but internationally as well: Ontario is open for business.

When it comes to employers in Barry’s Bay specifically, Yakabuski says “It’s going to be much easier for them to be successful and meet their payrolls and keep people on the job because I’ve had those discussions with those local businesses.”

Lastly, the Barry’s Bay native informed us that the new act will open jobs in skilled trades due to an upgrade in the apprenticeship system that is much needed. “We don’t have enough young people getting into the trades to fill the skills gap.” which Yakabuski says is going to get worse. Skilled trades are very important he states, as they include well paying jobs in transportation, road work and building structure. With Bill 47, Yakabuski is convinced that those trade workers will be brought in.