Doug Ford abandons fiscal responsibility
New budget runs $9.8 billion deficit, though the opposition would certainly spend more
The Ontario provincial government’s new budget and its projected $9.8 billion deficit is final proof that Premier Doug Ford’s government has no interest whatsoever in fiscal responsibility.
The Ford government was first infected with spending disease during COVID. Perhaps that was justifiable, but when tax revenues shot up after the pandemic, it spent all that money and more.
Now, faced with a slowing economy and lower than expected tax revenues, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is doing what any irrational person would do, find new things to spend money on. It’s the equivalent of an ordinary person saying “Inflation is high and I didn’t get the raise I was counting on. Let’s buy a boat.”
Or in Bethlenfalvy’s case police helicopters, four of them. The boots in the air plan is part of a promised $46 million over three years, intended to improve policing in the Greater Toronto Area. How, exactly, is unclear.
Then there is the $200 million to build or upgrade community recreation and sports buildings. This will provide many happy photo ops for PC MPPs, but was it a priority when facing such a large deficit?
These are relatively small items, but indicative of this government’s inability to say no. It’s the big picture that is more concerning. The Ford government would have us believe that its spending spree is “rebuilding the economy.” Just last week, the premier said, “We’re an economic powerhouse.”
And yet, this budget projects that real GDP will grow by just 0.3 per cent over the next year and the unemployment rate will rise to 6.7 per cent. Some powerhouse.
Bethlenfalvy chooses to blame Ontario’s problems on “economic uncertainty due to high interest rates and global instability.” The PC government still refuses to connect the dots between rapid population growth and the two biggest problems facing the province, a shortage of both housing and medical care.
See Also:
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