Mantha’s News From the Park : Mill Closure, Job Losses & Money Mart
Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha
Today (December 5th), the Statistics Canada Stats numbers were released. They are showing 34,000 people have lost their jobs, clearly this is just more evidence that the Liberals have failed to address the province’s jobs crisis and their austerity budget will only make matters worse.
These numbers are even more disturbing with the holidays just around the corner, meaning 34,000 families have lost a pay cheque, and wondering how they’ll pay the bills. The stats suggest that the hardest hit areas are in the Southwest and the Northern Ontario. We just learned that Liberal policies are partly to blame for the shutdown of the paper mill in Iroquois Falls. Resolute has announced it is shutting down the Paper Mill December 22nd. This is such tragic news just before the holidays.
The 27,000 full time jobs have been lost across the province, along with 7,000 part time jobs. Ontario’s unemployment rate has shot back up to 7.0 per cent putting Ontario’s unemployment back above the national average.
Here in Northern Ontario, we have been devastated by mine and mill closures. The downturn in the forestry sector has had devastating impacts in our communities. We have hardworking, talented, highly-educated people in Ontario who just want to work. Ontario needs a plan that doesn’t just keep jobs here, it creates new jobs. We need electricity rates that are affordable for businesses to run their companies. New Democrats will continue to push the government for a real job creation plan.
Also this week New Democrats called on the government to act quickly to end an initiative at Money Mart payday loan stores that offers to redeem gift cards at only 50% of the card’s value.
Forcing individuals who are already under a great deal of stress during the holidays to pay this extraordinarily high rate for an exchange is simply disgusting. This type of scheme that takes advantage of people that are already so vulnerable, particularly at this time of year, and we don’t think this is acceptable.
The scheme follows a growing trend by charitable organizations to give out gift cards to clients to help them buy gifts for Christmas and groceries for the holidays.
Giving gift cards is a more dignified approach to helping vulnerable people so they don’t have to line up at food banks or at Christmas hamper programs so this ‘gift cards for cash’ scheme just one of the many areas where the Payday Loans Act needs to be tightened up.
Late Friday afternoon the government responded to our pressure. I am glad to see that New Democrats and public pressure forced Money Mart to do the right thing and suspend this greedy program. This pilot project was wrong from the start and preyed on the most vulnerable in our society. New Democrats still call on the government to investigate how Money Mart was allowed to get away with this morally corrupt practice and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The legislature will rise at the end of next week; I look forward to returning to Algoma-Manitoulin to spend some holiday time with my family. Over the holidays I look forward to getting out to each community and participating in your holiday events, meeting with constituents, hearing your concerns, and working together to continue to build strong communities across the north.
As always, please feel free to contact my office about these issues, or any other provincial matters. You can reach my constituency office by email at mmantha-co@ndp.on.ca or by phone at 705-461-9710/1-800-831-1899.
MPP Michael Mantha, Algoma-Manitoulin
