Doug Ford unveils ‘Open for Business’ border crossing signs

It was all about big business as Premier Doug Ford spoke in from of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in Niagara on the Lake on Friday.

Ford announced new road signs will be going up near the border, touting one of his most popular campaign phrases — “Welcome to Ontario, Open for Business.”

“We are making Ontario open for business once again, and we’re not going to be shy about it … In coming weeks these signs are going to be up on the highways, at border crossings, across Ontario,” Ford told the crowd to great applause.

The Premier also went over his government’s accomplishments, such as scrapping the cap-and-trade tax.

“The carbon tax, it is a job killer, it does nothing for the environment, absolutely nothing for the environment,” he said. “It’s just another Trudeau Liberal tax grab punishing families and small businesses.”

However, the Independent Financial Accountability released a report that said doing away with cap-and-trade will actually cost most Ontario households money.

Ford also spoke about the repeal of Bill 148 that hiked the minimum wage and gave workers two paid sick days.

“The fact is, no legislation in Ontario’s history has killed more jobs than Bill 148,” he said. “It killed tens of thousands of jobs.”

However, some economists disagree with this, saying Ontario has actually created jobs over the last 12 months and the unemployment rate is close to a record low.

“I think it’s next to impossible to draw a straight line between the minimum wage hike and the exact number of jobs that have been lost in any given time period,” Doug Porter with BMO explained.

“Employment is actually up so far for all of 2018.”

For the first time, Ford addressed the break-in at Labour Minister Laurie Scott’s constituency office in Lindsay, Ontario, which happened after she announced a freeze to the minimum wage.

“Because not everybody out there supports making Ontario open for business, these forces are already organizing and preparing to spend a lot of money try to stop us,” Ford said.

“This week they broke in and vandalized Minister Laurie Scott’s constituency office.”