Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is pointing to reduced costs for businesses as among the driving forces behind the latest jobs numbers report from Statistics Canada.

The most recent Labour Force Survey shows employment in Ontario rose by nearly 16,000 in January and by more than 209,000 compared to one year ago. Employment also has risen by 307,800 since June 2018.

Fedeli, who spoke to The Nugget by phone while en route to Washington, D.C., where he and Premier Doug Ford will meet with state governors and business leaders this weekend, pointed to reductions in Workplace Safety & Insurance Board premiums, cuts to the corporate income tax rate and capital investment write offs for small businesses, as well as not moving ahead with the previous government’s tax increases as having contributed to the province’s job growth.

The provincial government estimates that Ontario businesses could save $5.4 billion this year as a result.

“So the business community did exactly what we would expect them to do with all this money,” said Fedeli, who serves as the minister of economic development, job creation and trade.

“They hired more than 300,000 new people, so more than 300,000 men and women woke up this morning and went to a job they didn’t have a year and a half ago.”

Overall, approximately three-quarters of all new jobs created in Canada in the past year were in Ontario.

“That’s because the Ontario plan, which is very unique to Canada, is working,” Fedeli said.

The latest figures come on the heels of a newly released report from the Fraser Institute which found that between 2008 and 2018, almost 91 per cent of all net job creation in Ontario occurred in the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa, compared to a little more than nine per cent in the rest of the province.

Fedeli said what the report tells him is that there is obviously more to do.

He referenced an announcement earlier this week at Canadore College where Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton said there were 7,700 vacant jobs in the North Bay area last year and about 200,000 across the province because there were not enough trained people to fill those positions.

McNaughton announced then that Canadore College would receive nearly $600,000 to train 63 people for local high-demand careers in the skilled trades, including carpentry, electrical, machine operation and personal support work.

“These are the jobs that we need filled. The jobs are here, the people to fill them are not trained, so that’s why there’s such a mismatch,” Fedeli said.

Along with the report from Statistics Canada, the provincial government also is highlighting its A- grade in the 2020 Red Tape Report Card from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

On his trip to Washington, meanwhile, Fedeli said it is all about not taking Ontario’s nearly $400 billion trading relationship with the United States for granted.

“We believe that there are more business opportunities with our partners in the U.S. We are the No. 1 trading partner with 19 U.S. states and we are the No. 2 trading partner with nine more U.S. states, so we will not take anything for granted,” he said.

“We need to be there to show that we’re open for business and open for jobs.”