Ontario Jobs Staple

This is an official STAPLE (technically, it is synonymous with PLANK), the contents will be used to create the party platform. It should match the Standardized Staple Structure. Please add any extra relevant information, to the discussion page.

Content

Let's start by defining our terms…

What is a ‘job’ ?

A job is a purposeful activity performed by a person whose effort must result in something of exchangeable value ( a product or service) that satisfies a want or need of others and for which these others are willing to trade with a product or service of their own in a free and mutually agreeable exchange .

What a ‘job’ is not.

Any human activity that is not designed to produce something for mutually agreeable, non-coerced exchange with others cannot qualify as a job.

Examples: - activity resulting in the giving of a gift - is not a job - activity performed by a non-paid voluteer - is not a job - activity performed for enjoyment without remuneration paid by others - is not a job - unpaid housework – is not a job - a “labour of love” to tend a garden or care for someone else without pecuniary compensation – while laudable, this too is not a job. - A government position is not a job if the money used to pay salary and benefits has been taken coercively (ie by taxation) . This is why governments offer ‘positions’ and for-profit enterprises employ people to perform jobs.

Current Problem

The unemployment rate in Ontario is unnecessarily high and its productivity level unnecessarily low.

Short-Term Goals

Incremental, implementation, achievable goals.

Define politically achievable targets for each of the 8 suggestions below under long term goals. This can only be defined in the context of an elections and the battlegrounds staked out by the competitors.

Long-Term Goals

Ideally, in the long-run, the pure libertarian position. 1. Eliminate the Minimum Wage law. 2. Reduce or eliminate payroll taxes 3. Eliminate unions in the public and private sectors 4. Eliminate the wage and employment benefits advantages that public sector employees enjoy over private sector workers. 5. Eliminate inter-provincial and international trade barriers. 6. Eliminate all labour legislation that does not protect worker safety and property rights. 7. Eliminate corporate subsidies that protect industries from new competitors. 8. Eliminate government monopolies and oligopolies in the energy, education, entertainment, legal, alcoholic beverages, construction, public safety, telecoms and banking sectors.

Hard Questions

1. The minimum wage law eliminates competition from entry level or unskilled workers whose only initial advantage is the willingness to work hard and learn PLUS a low wage expectation. Without that first job, Ontario citizens are systematically excluded from the work force by politically stronger special interest groups such as unions. Why do we use government policues such as these to disadvantage one segment of society pure for the benefit of another ?

2. Payroll taxes have increased steadfastly over the years, and with each increase has come a decrease in incentives for private-sector (ie 'for profit') enterprises to hire full time salaried employees. Temporary employment of workers has proven a less risky and more flexible way to handle increased workloads. This phenomenon has also been true for the introduction of new employment regulations - especially those that favor "employee rights" at the expense of the 'for profit' employer, and that unnecessarily increase the administrative burden of the employer. These deterrents, however, impose little or no impact on "filling positions" in the public sector where profitability is not a necessity for survival. If the citizens of Ontario want bake increasingly larger "economic pies" to satisfy their appetite for good jobs, public policy must send all counter-productive payroll tax and employment regulations to the public mausoleum in order to breathe new life in our moribund employment markets.

3. The elimination of unions will be a 'profitable' public policy in more ways than one. First, Unions will no longer be able to charge monopoly wage levels thereby reducing the cost of "human capital" in both public and private organizations: while all taxpayers will reap these benefits with reduced costs of government operations, all private enterprises will be able to re-invest their savings in expanding the productive output of their enterprises and/or pay dividends to their investor. Second, the rise in overall productivity that will result from re-allocating non-productive human capital ) ie government "positions" to productive, wealth-generating jobs will serve to expand Ontario's "economic pie" from which everyone stands to gain. Third, the confrontational atmosphere between "management" and union leaders will be replaced by an attitude of "shared purpose" in which owners, managers and workers will be engaged in co-operative teamwork with "prosperity " being their shared rallying vision. Fourth, without unions, the needs for the mountains of employment regulations will virtually disappear thereby eliminating the need for all public sector "positions" that exist to support them. Fifth, with the removal of job-killing, union friendly employment regulations, Ontario will attract new capital, businesses and out-of-province labour who who will "get the message " : Ontario is open for business!

Policy Impacts

1. For the elimination of the minimum wage law to be truly effective in the labour market, many union labour laws must also be repealed and anti-scab actions by union members must be punished to protect the equality of labour opportunities for everyone.

2. To eliminate or substantially reduce the payroll taxes and employment regulations that rob our citizens from the opportunity for attaining productive employment, Ontario must sacrifice the jobs of many public servants that create, administer, enforce and support these. These displaced persons who hold these positions may find themselves competing for jobs with very same job candidates that their prior positions served to inhibit. I say, may the best candidate win!

3. An anti-union stand will guarantee that we will lose the vote of all union sympathizers in the province which is a sizable percentage of the Ontario workforce, In addition, unions are known to "play dirty" especially if you have any serious political clout. Therefore, we can this policy to be the one that will most likely result in a threatening backlash to the OLP and its most visible members. The unions hold an extraordinary amount of power in Canada - especially for a country that claims to be a democracy.We can never underestimate the "bite of this rabid dog" when angered.

Explained Improvement

1. Too much emphasis is paid to the value of a good education and not enough paid on the value of creating a work environment where everyone has the opportunity to work AND to build the skills, experience and employment track record that will help them to grow in their contribution to Ontario's productive output. It is only by increasing Ontario's productive output will our "economic pie" be able to feed our growing work force. A strong resume always begins with a good 'first job' regardless of the pay level - it is immoral to maintain public policies that rob citizens from the early work experience that will mean so much to their future as responible and productive citizens .

2. There are many advantages to eliminating counter-productive payroll taxes and employment legislations. Hear are a few: a. Elimination of all positions that create and enforce them => results in smaller and less-costly government and the professions that feed of them ( example: employment lawyers). b. More workers become available ( ie former public sector workers) for 'for profit' enterprises to employ and at more competitive wage rates. c. Lower costs of hiring full-time staff => leads to reduced business operating costs, greater profitability, more capital to invest for expansion, and a better work opportunities for people who aspire to career advancement. d. If domestic companies have lower operating costs, the business case for moving work "off shore" to foreign jurisdictions is less attractive. More jobs stay in Ontario.

3. Many of the improvements of out-lawing unions were itemized above. However, likely the greatest of them all is creation of an equal playing field for everyone in Ontario who wants to invest in their own prosperity through hard work, perseverance, initiative and willingness to takes risks - ALL WITHOUT the existing pro-union roadblocks that are legally defended by existing public policy that owes its existence solely to political gain. I for one would be proud to count myself as a proud citizen of Ontario if the OLP only won this battle.

Summarizing Language

TWO adjectives, ONE noun

(Eg. Better, faster, healthcare.)

Jobs trump "positions'!

Make wealth, not war!

Unions destroy prosperity.

ONE Catchy Slogan

Eg. Wait any longer, and you'll be waiting longer.) Equal job opportunities for every productive worker!

Save a tree - fire a public servant!

Organized labour is organized crime! Make unions obsolete !!

ONE One-sentence quote

from a “candidate” (Eg. "My liver failed, and it took 9 years for the surgery"...)

ONE Three-sentence quote

from a “candidate”. (Eg. "I want freedom. I want choice. People don’t realize they are slaves.")

They moved 285 jobs from London to Michigan and took away my chance at getting a job - all because union rules prevented me for applying for one of those job at a lower wage.

How may public servants does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer : 7 1 to report the dead light bulb. 1 to requisition the procurement of a new light bulb. 1 to issue the purchase order for a new light bulb. 1 to accept receipt of the new light bulb. 1 shop steward to assign a union worker to install said new light bulb 2 to install the light bulb- the union worker who twists it into the socket and the Safety Inspector to ensure that it is installed to code.

Cost of lightbulb? $ 47.74 according to the special government price catalogue that was negotiated through the standard government tendering process.

Cost of labour? $ 978.16 Total cost to taxpayer? $1025.90

TWO Charts/Graphs/InfoGraphics

(Eg. "Healthcare spending per capita trend")

High level bullet Summary

Short-term

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Long-term

• ...
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ONE economic concept

(Eg. “Laffer Curve”, "Supply the demand dead-weight loss")

THREE photos

define "what", Eg. "Durham Region Hospital", "Old People smiling", “Tree”, or a specific school that was in the center of recent controversy”)

Guidance For Candidates

Writing to be used in training, and support of candidates. Not for publishing.

References

...citations are necessary

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