Unions and radical environmentalists are threatening Ontario’s economic progress, Tory Leader Tim Hudak says.

Hudak on Tuesday blamed unions — particularly public sector unions — for stalling Ontario’s economic recovery, and environmentalists for stalling development of the Ring of Fire, a vast northwestern Ontario mineral deposit.

“What the oilsands are to Alberta, what potash is to Saskatchewan, the Ring of Fire could be for the province of Ontario ... it’s too bad that the Liberals seem to be captured by radical environmental groups,” Hudak told reporters at Queen’s Park.

Hudak said the Liberal government and the New Democrats are too busy listening to the unions and not the rest of Ontarians.

“The problem that we have is that we have public sector union bosses who are running the government right now. And they seem to have access to the front door to Kathleen Wynne as premier,” he said.

“I think it’s just unfortunate that the NDP and Liberals seem to be so singularly focused on appeasing the public sector union bosses, it’s causing a province to go bankrupt and it is costing us jobs. Nobody is going to invest in a province that has huge debts.”

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), told the Star that Hudak’s rabid anti-union campaign has been good for his union.

“Do you know how much my union has grown the last couple of years with these guys attacking unions and public sector workers? We’re growing in leaps and bounds. We’re signing up a couple new units a week. I’m serious,” he said.

Thomas said no doubt Hudak hates unions but says he learned a long time ago “that hate is a useless emotion, all it does is detract from your own happiness.”

“I swear he (Hudak) stays awake at night trying to figure out ways to screw unions.”

Hudak said one way the public sector workers can be brought to heel is putting limits on arbitration awards, noting that recently a 20-per-cent wage increase for Stratford firefighters is a classic example of a municipality being saddled with a wage hike it can’t afford.

He said a big part of overspending in government is “fixing a broken arbitration system that is handing out outsized deals to public sector unions that are way beyond the ability of taxpayers to pay those bills.”

Tory MPP Jim Wilson is to reintroduce a bill that would require arbitrators to factor in the ability to pay when handing out awards as well as reflect what happening in the private sector.

“We need to take this on. With the Liberals and the NDP in some sort of competition in who can one up the other in getting public sector union boss support, the taxpayers simply can’t afford it,” he said.

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“We need to act on behalf of the 85 per cent of Ontarians who aren’t on the government payroll and have made far more sacrifices in these difficult times,” Hudak stated.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it the Tories’ modus operandi to pit one groups in society against another. “What I would rather do is find ways to make life better for everyone and not target certain people and creative divisiveness and anger,” she said.

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