The only way Ontario can balance its books is with a strong economy.  Cutting the provincial bureaucracy makes absolutely no sense because civil servants spend their incomes in their communities.  The labour expense of one organization is the revenue of another.  To get Ontario working again, my plan is:

Full Employment for Ontario

10 Million Jobs in Ontario in four years.
Full employment for the 7.5 Million people in the labour force.
2.5 Million jobs for people wishing to move here for a better life.

There is no need for public sector job cuts with tax changes, elimination of subsidies, and interest savings from the people and businesses in Ontario.  Operating our own bank as we have done in the past (1922-2003) would help to balance the budget and sustain growth by keeping more money here recirculating within our economy instead of leaving tax-free and returning as foreign ownership of our resources and industry.

It sounds a bit like the Ontario PC Party's Million Jobs Plan but it's 10 times better.  Why?  Because my plan doesn't have any delusions of bringing Ontario back to it former manufacturing glory.  Here's my plan:

I am very concerned that Ontario's economy is nowhere as strong as it needs to be.  I know that cutting waste from the government is important and balanced budgets should be the goal of any government but reducing the provincial deficit will not grow the economy in a recession.  It is more important to create a climate for businesses to succeed and I think that excessive regulation, red tape, and burdensome energy costs are things we need to address.

Regulations are important but they should not be an end in itself.  Not having enough regulations and inspections to back them up leads to situations like e-coli in drinking water and listeria outbreaks in packaged meat.  There needs to be a balance here and we need to make sure that regulations don't cause businesses to become uncompetitive.

The PCs and NDPs want to bring manufacturing jobs back to Ontario. I also want Ontario to become the manufacturing centre of North America.  However, with increasing reliance on robotics and automation, spending a pile of government money will not bring back the employment of Ontario's former manufacturing glory.  Ontario's improving economy is reflected in the jobless recovery where jobs are slowly being added by innovative companies (see Bizzline: Survey shows manufacturing optimism).  "Manufacturing jobs" is a great sound bite but the government can reduce unemployment by encouraging ALL businesses (not just those in the manufacturing sector) to succeed.  Retaining existing businesses should be as important as bringing in new business.

CBC Business:  ANALYSIS Are robotic smart machines behind the jobless recovery?

I do not believe that turning Ontario into a right-to-work province (like the PC Party wants to do) will help the economy grow.  Looking back in history, one of the first things that Henry Ford did was pay his employees enough to buy the cars they were building.  Cutting wages just means that the PCs want us to compete with 3rd world labour, which will just put us in a race to the bottom.

Tim Hudak new mantra is that he's going to create 1 Million new jobs (the way I read it:  bring back the old lost jobs) with their Advanced Manufacturing Plan but these ideas are mostly common sense than bold although I think it's out of character for Tim Hudak to want to subsidize manufacturers by "making investments in plants".  If a manufacturer is going to invest in new technology, it is going to be in automation that reduces labour costs and increases productivity.  Any company that is ready to invest in productivity-improving technology isn't floundering.  And why are the PCs only concerned with manufacturing?  Don't they care about the other sectors in the economy?

The NDP want to create jobs but don't promise a number.  Their policy sounds good too but "Rewarding Job Creators" is a subsidy that doesn't guarantee that good, high paying jobs will remain after the rebate cheque is cashed.  There are already lots of examples of companies that took the money and ran.  "Buy Ontario" sounds great too but this eliminates the need to be competitive with government purchases.  Uncompetitive businesses do not excel in the world market.  The NDP's idea to prevent gas gouging is already in place in Nova Scotia and they've gotten permanently higher (but less volatile) gas prices out of the deal.  Do we really need more regulations like these?

With the implementation of the Green Energy Act, the resulting Global Adjustment is adversely affecting our businesses.  This cost MUST be reduced.

I think the best way to create jobs is to rethink all of the regulations and red tape that businesses must overcome to be competitive.  I propose that we establish a "Truth & Reconciliation Commission for Regulations".  We need to rethink whether a regulation achieves its intended purpose and determine whether there is a better and more competitive way to achieve that purpose.

This review of regulations (or lack thereof) will also benefit consumers because the way things are done now often does not benefit consumers either.  Any review of regulations will not lessen the protection of the public interest but will in fact increase it by streamlining the process for consumers to get answers to questions and access to information.  Ontario needs to have a permanent compliance and complaints process for consumers as well.  There must be a public interest to balance the economic interest (i.e., profit motive) of regulations.