By John Bkila (NewsHooked) | Friday, March 30, 2018 at 12:00
I’m pretty sure the Ontario Liberals were channelling an episode of Oprah’s Favourite Things when they announced the 2018 pre-election budget on Wednesday (March 29).
Premier Kathleen Wynne-frey (through Finance Minister Charles Sousa): $2.2 billion for free preschool child care for children aged two-and-a-half until JKaaaaaaaaay!!! (cue audience screams)
Wynne-frey (through Sousa): $575 million for free prescription drugs for seniorrrrrrrs!!! (cue audience screams)
Wynne-frey (through Sousa): $2.1 billion to expand mental health servicessss!!! (cue audience screams)
If you want to get a good rundown of the key facts and figures of the budget, check the article by CBC News.
Now, don’t get me wrong, all of these funding investments can provide some real benefits and supports to people who really do need them, but why all of this now? And who’s exactly paying for it?
Well, if you’re reading this, and are a taxpayer, in Ontario, it’s you.
Anyone earning $71,500 or more in a year — which apparently is about 1.8 million of us — your taxes are going to increase, on a sliding scale.
OK, so the budget investments may do a lot of good, but the cynic in me says the $158.5-billion spending plan is just a voter grab in anticipation of the June 7 provincial election — let’s be honest, of course it is.
And while a lot of those in the demographics the funding promises will surely benefit, I’m not so sure many people are going to be able to stomach the fact the budget “boasts” a $6.7-billion deficit in the first year, with no identified plans to balance things until 2024-25.
Have we really gotten to the point as a province where we should toss fiscal prudence to the wind and spend, spend, spend? (Is that an orange hue on that Liberal red?)
An Oakville MPP says this actually isn’t the time to make “deep and irresponsible cuts to the services” people rely on — noting Ontario’s economy is strong (outperforming the rest of Canada and every G7 country), its unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in two decades, and this year, the province will have a $600-million surplus.
Honest moment: I’ve always straddled the Conservative/Liberal line on the political spectrum, leaning slightly more to the left; but this time around, I genuinely have no idea if I’ll bleed red or blue at the polls in June.
I mean, is it really a choice between Wynne-frey’s spend-us-into-debt platform, or what will probably be PC leader Doug Ford’s stop-the-gravy-train-scorched-earth manifesto…. What’s that? Oh, there’s a third party?
Featured top photo “Money, rich, woman and urban” HD photo by Marco Xu / Unsplash
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