Tory Leader Tim Hudak says Ontario must subsidize electricity costs for manufacturing if the province is to keep and attract jobs.

And in order to do that a Progressive Conservative government would end what he calls the billions of dollars in subsidies to wind and solar power, Hudak told reporters at Queen’s Park in spelling out the details of his party’s latest policy paper on job creation.

“The world has changed a lot when it comes to manufacturing. There are five million new jobs that the Americans are going to get so let’s get our fair share — at least 300,000 — and part of that equation (is) making sure we have affordable hydro,” he said.

A spokesperson for Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said it is inaccurate to characterize what the province pays for renewable solar and wind power as a subsidy, even though producers of wind power are paid 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour — or more than three times what Ontario Power Generation receives for hydroelectric power.

The spokesperson also said the province already offers industries, under its Industrial Electricity Incentive Program, a discount of about 27 per cent off their hydro rates if they bring new jobs and investment to the province.

Hudak, who was accompanied by Tory MPP Monte McNaughton (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex), said his government would have the Ontario Energy Board set an industrial and resource electricity rate that is competitive with border states and provinces.

“This has been a historic advantage for Ontario and now it has become a major handicap to new investments, so we have to act to change that to keep jobs here and attract new ones,” he said.

Hudak insisted that advanced manufacturing is “the industry of the future, not the past,” explaining that it’s brains, not muscle that will drive job creation in this sector.

“I know there are plenty of skeptics out there . . . who write off manufacturing. They’ve got this view that manufacturing is smokestack relic of the last century. The reality is they are wrong. Manufacturing has a very bright future,” he said.

Hudak said there is still time for Ontario to catch the wave of manufacturing returning to North America.

“So why are the jobs coming back to North America? First of all the cost of doing business in Asia is rising, wages are going up in Asia, transportation costs are increasing . . . and as the middle class grows in developing economies they are going to want our goods . . . from our automobiles to our nuclear technology to our food products,” he said.

The policy paper says Ontario must also turn its attention to a far greater degree to the controversial Alberta oil sands to capitalize on the job creation there.

“We make no apologies, we want to create jobs in Ontario,” McNaughton, the party’s economic, development and trade critic, told reporters. “We see a great potential for the province of Ontario and the people of Ontario by working to create jobs and supplying more products to the oil sands.”