For immediate release
August 14, 2009

OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff today announced that Guelph MP Frank Valeriote will be taking on the role as Liberal Critic for the economic development agency for Southern Ontario.

"Frank's ongoing and tireless work as Chair of the Liberal Party's Auto Caucus makes him ideally suited for this role," said Mr. Ignatieff. "I'm counting on him to hold the government accountable for their neglect of Southern Ontario - a region devastated by job losses."

Speaking today from Guelph, Mr. Valeriote used his new role to criticize the Harper government`s overdue re-announcement of the Southern Ontario Development Agency and to call on the Minister of State responsible, Gary Goodyear, to immediately begin a review of the proposed Nortel sale.

"Yesterday we saw the Harper government's economic inaction plan at work," said Mr. Valeriote.  "Southern Ontario has been waiting six long months since it was first announced in the budget to get this agency underway - the government has wasted precious time determining a site for it while thousands more jobs have been lost."

Southern Ontario has been one of the hardest hit regions of the country.  The Harper government has shown no vision for stemming job losses and supporting new job creation in the region, as shown by their unwillingness to maintain Canada's high-tech competitive advantage in the wake of Nortel's bankruptcy.

"If Minister Goodyear is serious about Southern Ontario, he should turn his attention immediately to assisting Minister Clement with a review of the sale of Nortel's wireless assets," said Mr. Valeriote. "This review should exhaust all efforts to find a made-in-Canada solution involving one of Southern Ontario's success stories, Kitchener-Waterloo's Research-in-Motion."

Contact:
Office of MP Frank Valeriote
519-837-8276