For Immediate Release
February 27, 2007


MCGUINTY FAILING RURAL ONTARIO

TORONTO – Today during a speech at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association/Ontario Good Roads Conference John Tory, Leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party contrasted his realistic and achievable plan for rural Ontario against McGuinty’s failed record.

“Rural Ontario deserves a real plan for jobs. I am definitely not from the camp that says that it is somehow okay for rural Ontario to slowly decline and that ultimately having everyone living in the big cities be satisfactory,” said Tory. “Our big cities must be healthy and growing, but that health, indeed their very sustainability depends on a stable, healthy, rural Ontario.”

Tory pointed out that under the McGuinty government more than 120,000 manufacturing jobs have bled out of the province, many of them in rural areas and smaller communities.

During his speech Tory outlined the following commitments:

•
A John Tory government would move more of the provincial government out of Toronto to bring government closer to the people it is supposed to serve and bring jobs to rural and smaller communities;
• A John Tory Government would move quickly to resolve the Municipal funding imbalance by making sure that whoever has the responsibility also has the ability to pay; and
• A John Tory Government would replace the current municipal infrastructure funding lottery system with agreed upon funding contracts with terms of at least five years to give municipalities the ability to plan.

Ernie Hardeman Oxford MPP and Progressive Conservative Municipal Affairs Critic is attending the ROMA/OGRA and meeting with local municipalities and organizations from across the province.

“I’m hearing from municipal politicians that the McGuinty plan isn’t working. Over the last three years Ontario has lost over 120,000 manufacturing jobs – many from our smaller and rural communities,” said Hardeman. “At the same time the provincial government is forcing municipalities to do more and more without giving them the resources they need.”

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For more information, contact:
Ernie Hardeman, MPP
(416) 325-1239