Freedom Flyer 18

In recent months the movement of companies to the United States, such as Tridon and Varity Corporation, has been growing steadily.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not free trade that is driving these companies and the jobs they provide south of the border, but the high cost of doing business in Canada.

Socialists claim that government intervention in the economy can provide job security for workers. The situation many manufacturing workers find themselves in today shows that this claim is completely false.

True job security depends upon the ability to attract and keep customers, and when there are no customers there are no jobs.

William Frampton

The reason so many plants have closed is that due to high taxes and other costs they are not economically viable. This is because they cannot satisfy the demands of consumers, who find they can get better products at lower prices from other suppliers.

It is both necessary and beneficial that capital be free to move from lines of production that consumers no longer support to those they value more highly.

Any intervention that inhibits this process hurts consumers and workers alike.

Consumers are affected by having less choice of those things they desire most. Workers are harmed by having fewer job opportunities available.

Ontario Premier Bob Rae's plan to use the $5 million Varity will pay the province to start a fund to compensate workers laid off due to plant closings is no substitute for- job opportunities.

New job opportunities depend upon capital investment in new plants.

At a time when Ontario needs new investment to replace the jobs lost by plant closings, the government is very foolish to consider a policy that would make the province a less attractive place for investors.

Last year over 12,000 workers in Ontario were affected by plant closings. If they earned $10 an hour - less than the average industrial wage - the $5 million would be completely exhausted if each worker collected one week's wages.

The only way the government could maintain the fund is by raising taxes even higher than they already are. That would drive even more companies out of the province.

With so many plants closing in a short period of time, the need for new opportunities for the laid off workers is much greater.