TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government will move to cash in on a growing demand for water and clean water technology as part of a five-year plan called Open Ontario to be unveiled in the March 8 throne speech, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Thursday.
Open Ontario will also put a renewed emphasis on post-secondary education and attracting more foreign students, promise to develop a huge chromite deposit in the northwest known as the Ring of Fire, and try to make Toronto one of the world's elite financial centres.
"It's an ambitious plan," McGuinty said in a speech to about 2,000 business elite at the Liberal's largest fundraiser of the year.
"What I really want to say to Ontarians through this speech is that we're going for it. We're not going to sit on our hands. We're going to act boldly."
Open Ontario is a plan to build a new foundation for economic growth and jobs, said McGuinty, but is not for the feint of heart.
"This is not without risks, but we don't enjoy the luxury of sitting back," he said. "It's time for our generation to step it up."
Not surprisingly, McGuinty didn't mention the record $24.7-billion deficit and barely touched on the coming 13 per cent harmonized sales tax during the speech. The $950-a-plate dinner pulled in about $2.16 million for the governing party.
Throne speeches by nature are vague and offer only general outlines of the government's plans. But McGuinty's address Thursday delivered specific ideas, although curiously they were posed as a series of questions about why Ontario wouldn't do what he was proposing to do.
For example, the Conference Board of Canada estimates the global market for water technology at over $450 billion, with annual growth of up to 15 per cent, he said.
"Why wouldn't we organize ourselves to grab an even bigger share of that market for Ontario?" asked McGuinty. "We're doing exactly that for clean energy, so why not for clean water?"
Toronto has become North America's third largest financial centre, accounting for 350,000 jobs, with banks, insurance companies, investment funds and pension managers working independently of each other, the premier told the audience.
"Why couldn't we come together, industry and government, and commit ourselves to a strategy to make Toronto one of the world's elite financial centres?" McGuinty asked again.
About 62 per cent of Ontarians go to college or university, but 70 per cent of new jobs demand post-secondary education, said the premier, who also talked about attracting more foreign students, noting that Australia's third largest industry is international education.
"Why don't we get serious about competing for international students?" asked McGuinty. "We could use the funds this generates to help expand our schools for our kids and create jobs."
Open Ontario will also include plans to help northern residents and First Nations develop what may be the largest chromite deposit in the world, the Ring of Fire in the northwest.
"Why wouldn't we take full advantage of this multi-billion dollar economic opportunity?" asked McGuinty. "Why wouldn't we ensure that our northern communities, our mining sector, our First Nations benefit from the thousands of new Ontario jobs this will create?"
With an Ontario election less than 20 months away, McGuinty wants to use the throne speech to give new life and energy to the Liberal government's agenda, and help pave the way for an unprecedented third majority government in October 2011.
However, it's hardly all clear sailing for the government, which will have to take dramatic steps in the budget -- expected March 25 -- to rein in the huge deficit, and is bracing for a consumer backlash after the HST goes into effect July 1.
