Today in Question Period, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Gilles Bisson grilled the Premier today over the Liberals refusal to support changing Ontario’s Mining Act. Horwath says Timmins is preparing to lose hundreds of jobs and all Dalton McGuinty can say is “too bad, so sad.”

“A busload of people traveled all night from Timmins to be here at Queen’s Park today to try and get the Premier to change his mind. They want you to ensure that resources extracted in Ontario are used to create jobs and prosperity in Ontario.”

Horwath says the alarm bells have been going off for years in the north. “We have seen trees extracted from Ontario and shipped to Quebec. Now Xstrata wants to do basically the same thing with our ore while at the same time handing pink slips to Ontario workers.

Bisson says the Save Our Metsite Coalition asked the Premier to be a champion for them. “We asked you to work with us and Xstrata to determine what the cost factors were in their decision to leave Ontario. Why are you not prepared to intervene for our jobs but were quick to intervene for the auto sector?”

Bisson says Dalton McGuinty needs to do his job and deal with the cost factors imposed by the government. “We wanted to deal with the issues Xstrata saw as problematic in Ontario and as a result save the hundreds of affected jobs. Are you prepared to work with us so that we can save the jobs in Timmins and for the people of Ontario?”

Bisson’s Private Members Bill will come up for second reading this afternoon.