SYDNEY, NS – Progressive Conservative leader Jamie Baillie says the NDP’s high taxes and high power rates are killing job creation and driving people away from Cape Breton.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality showed the third highest population decline percentage in Canada according to recent census data.

“A great deal of Nova Scotia’s wealth is generated, fished, farmed, mined and manufactured outside of Halifax,” said Baillie. “The NDP have forgotten that, but the PC Party never will and I intend to be a Premier for all of Nova Scotia.”

At a luncheon today, Baillie told the Sydney Chamber of Commerce that Cape Breton shed 1,500 full time jobs, and outmigration from Nova Scotia to other provinces has reached a 20-year high since the NDP took office.

“We want job creators to know that we will do everything we can to help them succeed,” said Baillie. “We want them to do what they do best – create jobs in Cape Breton for people who want to stay in Cape Breton and provide for their families.”

Baillie says a PC government is committed to creating the winning conditions for job creation: balancing the budget, lowering taxes, eliminating unnecessary regulations and adopting an energy plan that affordably integrates economic and environmental goals.

While in Sydney recently, Finance Minister Graham Steele said that everyone agrees with his government’s budget strategy, but Baillie said that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“When the Finance Minister talks about everyone agreeing with his high tax and high cost NDP policies, I’m sure he hasn’t consulted with all the people who have left Nova Scotia,” said Baillie.

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