Ted Chudleigh Blog

Well, the little rodent popped his head out of his hiding place and said the future doesn’t look too bright.

Wiarton Willie saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter. Who did you think I was referring to? Well, the Premier has made much the same prediction, in that deep program cuts, Dalton Days and well essentially everything else is on the table as we approach budget time in Ontario. The future doesn’t look too bright here in Ontario.

We have nearly two more years of the McGuinty regime miring us deeper into recession, have-not status among provinces, public debt, job losses and economic mismanagement.

Now it bears reminding that this is a government that promised balanced budgets but has managed only one in six tries. And the one they did have was presented as a small deficit budget, but tax collection exceeded predictions and the year ended with a small, unexpected surplus.

The government expects this current year’s deficit to be nearly $25 billion. I expect it will be significantly higher. And then there is the 2010-11 budget expected sometime in March. Already Premier McGuinty has mused about what it might contain. Restraint is not a word that comes easily to Liberals – but it has passed the lips of our erstwhile Premier.

Still, where is this restraint? The Premier promised all day kindergarten programs will start in September. A plan expected to cost more than $1 billion annually.

Today there is word that the union representing Ontario college instructors has called a strike for February 11 if their contract is not settled. The strike vote was only 57 per cent in favour of a strike and a significant number of members didn’t even vote. It’s obvious that union leaders cannot help but see that strong arm tactics have served public school teachers well with this government for whom labour peace is more important than public affordability.

Now apparently Wiarton Willie’s predictions haven’t been too accurate in recent years. In that, Willie and our Premier are much alike. And it goes deeper. Willie’s predictive powers are based on folklore. The McGuinty Liberal budgets are based on nanny state myths that ignore fundamental human and fiscal truth.

The March budget will likely be another exercise in dream weaving. Willie’s predictions are what they are – but the Liberals’ actions and forecasts have real consequences for which Ontarians will pay the price.

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The province is broke. But Dalton McGuinty wants to keep spending, so he’s coming after you and your money.
Health Tax, HST, allowances for municipalities to tax, higher fees for services - The Dalton Gang will get your money one way or another.
The latest is a huge increase in electricity costs to subsidize energy jobs coming on the heels of a previous large increase in electricity
costs courtesy of smart meters. There are very few opportunities for time-shifting electrical use. That means that most people will not see
the advantage of lower rates for off peak use and will have to pay more for electricity than they do currently.
This latest rate hike is tied to subsidies for the Samsung deal for Green Energy. In essence Ontarians will pay $437 million in subsidies to bring jobs to Ontario. However, the deal is hollow in that there are no job guarantees, just a lot of hope that Ontario can become a Green Energy leader by being the place where a lot of Green Energy equipment is manufactured. Ontarians will be paying for these jobs on their Hydro bills for years.
Given that Green Energy has never provided more than a token amount to Ontario’s electricity load, or the energy loads of any developed jurisdiction, this deal is banking on a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ for its success.
Dalton’s job promises are about as solid as his fiscal ones. Last year he promised one million new jobs. What we got was 140,000 fewer jobs. He promised balanced budgets. Ontario has had one balanced budget in six years of Liberal rule. He promised no tax increases. Go back to the top of this post . . .
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