Ontario budget 2011

capricorn · March 29, 2011

At 4 pm EST, Duncan will table the last Liberal budget before the upcoming October provincial elections.

The province is heading to the polls Oct. 6, but Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is planning to deliver a stay-the-course spending plan that won't contain any new tax credits, hikes or cuts.
The Canadian Press has learned the budget will contain some new help for farmers by expanding risk-management programs to cattle, sheep, hog, veal and fruit and vegetable producers.

There will also be some targeted investments in health care, education and jobs — areas that are key to the Liberal re-election strategy.

They include plans to create 60,000 new spaces for post-secondary students by 2015-16, which Duncan says is essential for Ontario's future economic growth.

The province will remain in the red longer than most and won't rebalance the books until 2017-18.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/03/29/ontario-provincial-budget358.html?ref=rss

Stay the course, Dalton, stay the course and we'll all go down together.

Bryan · March 30, 2011

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/03/29/37-days-liberal-cousins-at-odds-on-taxes/

It will make for an artful bit of argument if Mr. Ignatieff is able to explain how his provincial brethren still believe in corporate tax reductions now that his party, having previously supported them, has abandoned them. Even the federal Liberals’ preferred explanation for their own switch — that business taxes should not be cut during a time of deficit — has been rebutted by the Ontario Liberals, who are committed to further reductions even though the province carries a multi-billion-dollar deficit.

A Liberal official in the media lockup on Tuesday noted that “[stephen] Harper will probably use that to bash Iggy” as soon as the budget was released.
No doubt he will. And while he’s at it, the federal Conservative leader might also note that among the Ontario Liberal budget items is a plan to make the jail system more efficient by closing under-used prisons. Those inmates, it says, “will be transferred to new, larger, more efficient facilities.” Ontario Liberals spending money on bigger jails? In federal Liberal circles, the proper term for these facilities are “U.S.-style mega prisons.”

This going to get VERY interesting. Iggy will have a fun dance on his hands trying to defend his policies without saying Ontario is out to lunch.