Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said it “falls to this generation to do the right thing, not the easy thing” in rising to meet the challenges posed by a transformed global economic environment.

Addressing the closing luncheon at the Ontario Economic Summit, McGuinty affirmed the provincial government’s commitment to strengthen Ontario’s economy by bolstering education, shoring up health care, stimulating innovation, and implementing the Green Energy Act..

Tackling the politically sensitive topic of a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), the premier said, “It’s easy for opponents to push forward a message that the HST is a tax grab and a waste of money, but I’m appealing to people’s better instincts. We’re in this together, and we have a responsibility for each other.” He cited an independent study that concluded the province’s tax package will create over a million new jobs and attract substantially more capital to Ontario over the next 10 years.

Asked how his government plans to shrink the recently announced $25 billion budget deficit, Premier McGuinty declined to confirm whether he would implement “Dalton days”—a reference to government workers’ mandatory holidays during Premier Bob Rae’s tenure—but acknowledged that putting together the 2010 spring budget will require some difficult choices. People in every sector of the economy will be asked to make sacrifices. “The question is, what are you prepared to do to ensure that your children and grandchildren will enjoy the same opportunities you have?” the premier said.

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Adopting environmentally sustainable business practices is not just the right thing to do from an ethical perspective, it is also one of the best ways Ontario companies can reduce costs, create jobs, and improve profitability, panelists said.

As World Wildlife Fund Canada President Gerald Butts put it, “Going green is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. The companies that are going to be successful are the ones who see this not as corporate social responsibility, but as a profitability initiative.”

Galen Weston, executive chair of Loblaw Companies Limited, said businesses align their different approaches to greening their operations with their own underlying business philosophies. He provided several examples in which Loblaws had taken leadership in green initiatives, been rewarded financially, and driven changes across whole food industry.

“We cannot drive all actions alone, though,” Weston said. “So we urge governments and NGOs to call upon us. . . . We can be more effective when we work together.”

Producing or selling green products are not the only ways to have a positive impact on businesses, though. Paul Rak, president of VeriGreen/Veriform Inc., said that even small internal changes in the way companies do business can have a major impact on the bottom line. His company has increased sales, expanded its facilities, and still managed to cut energy consumption by undertaking a number of simple projects, such as changing light bulbs or installing tankless water heaters.

Over the last three years, VeriGreen/Veriform has more than doubled its sales per kilowatt of energy. “We took the words ‘profit’ and ‘green’ and used them in the same sentence; it’s not an oxymoron,” Rak said.

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Boom and bust approaches to infrastructure do not work and will not create sustainable growth in the province’s economy over the long term, panelists in Tuesday’s spotlight session on Big Impact Infrastructure agreed.

Large infrastructure projects require enormous financial investment, said Lloyd McCoomb, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. “But it must be stable funding. It stimulates the economy to build the infrastructure, but it requires foresight to put aside the money needed to maintain it. Infrastructure investment must be sustained over the whole lifecycle.”

Human infrastructure is just as important to the economy as physical infrastructure, said Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Warren (Smokey) Thomas. He urged leaders from government, business, academia, and labour to work out cooperative compromises to help deal with the deficit.

“Rather than attacking labour, choking off government investment, and undermining business, people need to come together,” Thomas said. “Collectively, the province has the expertise to meet this challenge and flourish without pitting people against one another.”

Bill Smith, senior vice president of Energy at Siemens Canada Limited, said there is incredible untapped potential in Ontario for new and innovative energy projects, but they require getting the most out of existing assets, such as the electricity grid. This will require the creativity and imagination of engineers, entrepreneurs, and academics, and the support of government.

“These are the kinds of infrastructure that an advanced and competitive jurisdiction must have,” said Windsor Border Initiatives Implementation Group Director Fausto Natarelli. “The higher the quality of the infrastructure, the greater the realization will be that these projects are what’s required for competitive progressive communities.”

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Destination Ontario panelists offered expert advice on building the Ontario tourism brand; they outlined the province’s opportunity to compete successfully for investment and tourist dollars in the face of shrinking budgets.

Keynote speaker Alex Dobrochodow—the creative strategist behind the “Seven Wonders of New South Wales, Australia” marketing campaign—said Ontario must position itself as the parent in a “brand family” made up of regional, “sibling” tourism bodies. Working closely with one other, the province and regions must develop, and maintain, a campaign with a winning message.

“When we developed the Seven Wonders theme we found something that expressed the truth of the place, and all regions could see themselves in that strategy,” Dobrochodow said. Even during the global economic crisis, tourism to the area increased by 12% each year the campaign ran, demonstrating that “you can achieve counter-intuitive results if you go about it the right way.”

President and founder of Skyline International Development, Inc., Gil Blutrich emphasized the need for the Ontario government to build infrastructure to encourage private sector investment in all areas of business. Rebecca LeHeup-Bucknell, executive director of the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance, added that in tackling issues as complex as financial and human resource shortages, “no community will get where it needs to go without leadership.”

Asked what might discourage companies from investing in Ontario, Mike Pley, chief operating officer of COM DEV International, said that because of his company’s need for qualified engineers, if the government decided to not invest in education, “that would be a huge mistake and we would go somewhere else.”

Allan Cosman, president and chief executive officer of Ferrero Canada Ltd., said the province needs to modernize a 40-year-old regulatory system that forces companies to make different products north and south of the U.S./Canada border. He agreed with Pley that Ontario’s central location and proximity to the United States, excellent universities, and creative workforce make it an excellent place to do business.

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If Ontario is to thrive in a knowledge-driven, creative economy, diverse groups will need to come together, pooling their knowledge and insights to solve problems and generate unique new products. From research scientists working with businesspeople to post-secondary students working with the manufacturing industry, creative collaboration has the potential to build the province’s competitiveness, a panel of experts agreed.

“When you get people from many different backgrounds and perspectives working together, you get synergies and ideas bouncing around the room,” said Ian Wilson, executive director of the Stratford Institute for Digital Media and Culture. “We need to find ways to move bright new ideas faster into the marketplace.”

Paul Rowan, co-founder and vice-president of design with Umbra, a Toronto design and manufacturing company, said his company has spent the last 15 years building partnerships with educational institutions around the world, to the benefit of both the business and the students. “I think there’s a lot of silos that need to be torn down,” he said.

Diana Pliura, president of ALBRY and entrepreneur-in-residence with the Health Technology Exchange, added that Ontario already has the research scientists, facilities and international credibility that will allow it to become a world leader in advanced medical technology. However, to fully realize the province’s potential, partnerships must be developed between the medical community, the digital community, and the creative community, Pliura said.

Although the province must find ways to bring together different sectors within the economy, its cultural diversity provides it with a creative edge, which will lead to a competitive advantage, panelists agreed.

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