Provincial Liberals Introduce Budget

There are no pre-election goodies in the Ontario budget
that will take the Liberals into the fall election.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has delivered a financial
blueprint with no new tax cuts and only a smattering of strategic new programs.
Duncan says what is very much an election budget strikes the
right balance between protecting health care and education and deficit reduction.
He warns a Conservative government would have to lay off
thousands of teachers, nurses and doctors to pay for a 1%
cut in the H-S-T, which the Tories haven’t actually promised but haven’t ruled out.
The government already announced some of the budget’s key
initiatives, including 60,000 new spaces at colleges and
universities by 2015.
There is also $15-million over three years to expand
breast cancer screening and $93-million a year for a new
mental health and addictions strategy, but not until 2013-14.
There are also new risk management programs for livestock and fruit and vegetable farmers.
Anticipating a Tory attack on his government’s spending, Duncan outlined belt-tightening measures aimed at finding $1.5-billion in savings over three years.
They include the potential sale of ServiceOntario, the rapidly expanding agency that delivers services like drivers’ licences and health cards.
The province also plans to cut 1,500 civil service jobs
starting next year, shut down old jails and trim executive
compensation packages among Crown corporations, hospitals and universities.
Duncan says government belt-tightening helped push the deficit down to $16.7-billion for fiscal 2010 and it will fall to $16.3 billion in fiscal 2011.
But it won’t be eliminated until 2017-18 despite urging from the big banks to get back in the black sooner