Chapter 5 - Economic Indicators

Article: http://www.thestar.com/Ontario%20Budget/article/350610

In this article Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is trying to increase the economy of Ontario by helping the unemployed and the poor in a provincial budget. He plans 1.5 billion dollars to Jobs Action Plan over a three year period. The plan was set up due to high unemployment rate between 2001 and 2006 when 77,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. Duncan says, “The plan will strengthen long-term economic productivity, while stimulating investment and job growth today, and move us to a greener, more sustainable future.” By 2010 the economic growth is expected to jump to 2.8 per cent. The plan also offers training for unemployed workers for new jobs, expand apprenticeships, built more colleges, and help students with education costs. A total of $355 million over three years is allocated to retrain 20,000 unemployed workers. In addition to unemployment the plan also targets poverty, they will be allocating 135 million over a 3 year period for free dental care program and 32 million for student in nutrition programs. Also, 750 million dollars over four years in business tax breaks .

Relationship to Chapter 5

This article is related to chapter 5 because it uses unemployment as an indicator to the economy and in this chapter we have learned about unemployment rates and different types of unemployment. Ontario government wishes to improve the state of the economy by introducing new plans to help people become employed. I believe they are mostly targeting people with structural unemployment because they offer training and schools to help them get a job. This plan is also good for people with seasonal unemployment because they can get the education they need to work during their off-season. This way they will not have to rely on the government for income during the off-season.

I think this is a good step forward in decreasing the amount of people with structural unemployment. The plan will help the Canadian economy to function at full efficiency because people who would like to work, but unable to work due to lack of skills will decrease the number of people who are unemployed. Also, decreasing unemployment rate will stimulate economic growth since most of the people will have a steady source of income and will be making purchases. In addition to allocating more money for the citizens it is wise for the government to give more tax breaks because of the incentives it will promote expansion and investment.