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Some businesses groups are clearly spooked. They created a new lobby organization called Keep Ontario Working, and took to the op-ed pages of the business press. “If adopted, the proposals … would make the province the most radical left-wing environment for businesses in the Western world,” wrote employment lawyer Howard Levitt in the Financial Post in September.

The completed review, with its final recommendations, is due to land on Labour Minister Kevin Flynn’s desk any day now. The question is what the government will do with it.

This has the potential to be very controversial, and it will be a test of the Wynne government’s boldness at a time when it is sensitive over its lowly polling numbers. Business leaders tend to have a lot of political power; non-unionized employees tend to have very little. Also, you may recall an election is coming.

In an interview, Flynn said he’s confident the government can come to a reasonable balance that doesn’t hugely antagonize business groups. But he is also determined to stay focused on vulnerable workers.

“We’re leading the G7 in economic growth, but that has to apply to everybody in our society,” Flynn said. “We need to have rules to make sure everyone shares in that, and I think decent employers understand that.”

And though the review was started well before Trump’s victory seemed an even remote possibility, Flynn said the political climate next door has weighed heavily on his mind.

“I think we’d be foolhardy to ignore what happened south of the border recently, and some of the reasons for that,” he said. “That’s certainly not lost on me as minister of labour. There are some lessons there.”

Brian Platt is the deputy digital editor for the Ottawa Citizen. Previously, he was based at Queen’s Park as a policy reporter.

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bplatt@postmedia.com