There is no major new spending or tax cuts to attract voters in today’s Ontario budget.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan focused limited new spending to an expanded breast cancer screening program, new risk management programs for farmers and 60-thousand new spaces at colleges and universities.
Duncan says the budget strikes an appropriate balance between spending on vital services and paying down the deficit, which is projected to drop to 16.3 billion dollars in 2011-12.
The finance minister used the budget to warn voters that Progressive Conservative promises of tax cuts would mean massive layoffs of teachers, nurses and doctors.
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The Opposition parties say today’s budget does nothing for Ontario families struggling to deal with the H-S-T and skyrocketing electricity bills.
Conservative leader Tim Hudak says the Liberals continue to increase spending.
And he says the only way for Premier McGuinty to eliminate the deficit will be to raise taxes again after the October 6th election.
Hudak says his party will give families real tax relief but he won’t say exactly how or how it would pay for it.
N-D-P leader Andrea Horwath says despite putting the H-S-T on everyday essentials, McGuinty is still giving a multi-billion dollar handout to rich corporations.
She says the premier’s brother David, a Liberal M-P, is calling for an end to federal corporate tax cuts and he’s got it right.
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Health care remains the number one item in the Ontario budget, eating up 42 per cent of program spending.
The government has allocated 15 million dollars over three years to expand breast cancer screening to women as young as 30 who are at high risk of the disease.
There is also a promise of a new mental health and addictions strategy with 93 million dollars in funding, but not until 2013-14.
And it provides 100 million dollars a year for an existing program to improve pharmacy services for those covered under the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan — mainly seniors and those on social assistance.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says the province has also set aside 600- to 800-million dollars over three years to help cash-strapped hospitals eliminate their deficits.
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Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is promising funding to add 60-thousand spaces to post secondary institutions by 2015-16.
The move will cost 64 million dollars for fiscal 2011 and up to 309 million by 2013-14 in additional operating grants to colleges and universities.
Duncan says no keen and qualified student will be turned away for lack of space.
The budget also includes another 44 million dollars over three years for literacy and basic skills programs and 22.5 million to help over 100-thousand students with a summer jobs strategy.
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The Ontario budget turns a risk management program for grain and oilseed farmers into a permanent plan.
There will also be new risk management programs for livestock producers, as well as a self-directed risk management program for fruit and vegetable farmers.
The cost of the risk management programs are shared by the Ontario government and farmers.
However, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is calling on the federal government to resume its participation and pay its usual 60 per cent share.
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Today’s Ontario budget offers few goodies for business and only modest deficit reduction amid a fragile economic recovery.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan didn’t change much in his approach to economic growth and business opportunities –with no new tax cuts, but no increases either.
He rejected calls to scrap corporate tax cuts — saying that would kill jobs because Ontario needs to be competitive with other provinces to attract investment.
The government does plan to invest 175 million dollars in a series of partnerships with the private sector to create 21-hundred new jobs and retain another 78-hundred.
Duncan says the Ontario economy has turned the corner on the recession and projects moderate growth of 2.4 per cent in 2011 and 2.7 per cent in 2012.
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Despite urging from the big banks to make deficit reduction a priority, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan still expects to take until 2017-18 to balance Ontario’s books.
Duncan projects the deficit will fall to 16.3 billion dollars in 2011-2012, just 400 million dollars below the 2010-11 figure.
And the red ink is scheduled to fall by only 1.7 billion over the following two years.
However, the finance minister has built in reserve funds ranging from 700 million to one billion dollars each year that could be applied to the deficit if no economic emergencies arise.
If the current projections remain on track, the Ontario debt will rise to 307.5 billion dollars by the time the books are balanced.
This year alone, the debt works out to about $18,576 for every man, woman and child in Ontario.
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Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is looking for ways to save 1.5 billion dollars in government spending over the next three years.
They include the potential privatization of ServiceOntario, the agency that delivers services like drivers’ licences and health cards.
The province also plans to have major agencies reduce their spending by 200 million dollars by 2013-14 and cut 15-hundred civil service jobs by 2014.
The budget also moves to cut compensation packages for top civil servants and executives at Ontario’s hospitals, colleges and universities.
It imposes a 10 per cent permanent cut over two years in funding for executive offices in the public service.
But N-D-P leader Andrea Horwath says that language is fuzzy and the McGuinty government should have imposed a hard cap on the salaries of public sector C-E-O’s.
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The Liberal government has appointed economist Don Drummond to head a commission to reform Ontario’s public services.
The commission will determine which government services are necessary and which could be delivered more efficiently by another company or agency.
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The Liberal government is looking to the justice system to trim some fat from its budget.
The construction of the Toronto West Courthouse will be cancelled, resulting in savings of around 181 million dollars over three years.
The government says it will also be closing underutilized jails in Owen Sound, Walkerton and Sarnia and partially closing the Toronto West Detention Centre.
Inmates will be moved to what the province says is larger, more efficient facilities.
The opposition leaders say scrapping the courthouse makes no sense when backlogs are leading to cases being dismissed.
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