“It’s always easy to spend more. It’s so much harder to spend less.”
- Dalton McGuinty, April 10, 2012

QUEEN’S PARK – Ontario is headed in the wrong direction, following nine years of reckless overspending by the McGuinty Liberals that have left this province in a deep hole and with a debt set to triple by 2017, Ontario PC Deputy Education Critic Rob Milligan said today.

“Dalton McGuinty has taken a tough economic situation and made it worse with his bad decisions, and his inability to grasp the seriousness of Ontario’s jobs and spending crisis,” Milligan said.

Over the last 10 months, Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Caucus have introduced bold ideas to kick-start economic growth and job creation, including a legislated public-sector wage freeze, lower taxes for businesses, treating energy as a cornerstone of economic growth and changing the attitude of government by welcoming entrepreneurs – not deterring them with regulations and red tape.

“We have been clear since the last election that we need to take a different path,” Milligan said. “The Premier has chosen another course that continues overspending. This puts at risk the things we care about – like classroom education – because of the huge sums of money going to debt interest,” added Milligan, a former teacher, who voted in favour of PC legislation to help rein in overspending with a legislated mandatory public sector wage freeze.

Milligan added that “Fellow teachers have told me that they understand the need to be part of the solution to get Ontario back on track. But not while nearly 98 per cent of the managers in the civil service get a 12 per cent bonus.”

The 2012 budget cancelled business tax relief and hiked taxes on job-creating entrepreneurs, Milligan added. “So no sooner was the budget delivered than Ontario’s credit rating was downgraded.

“Since then, Ontario’s economy has continued to stumble, without an integrated and comprehensive plan that gets our economic fundamentals right. No wonder Ontario won’t balance its books until three years later than all other provinces.”

Bad decisions, like the $190 million money bomb to cancel the Mississauga gas plant, also explain why our province has lagged Canada in job creation for 67 straight months, wage growth is last in the nation and virtually stagnant, and the deficit is three times the size of all other provinces – combined.

“We need to take urgent action now – or else that debt load will come crashing down, endangering all the things Ontarians depend on. This includes reining in spending with a legislated mandatory public-sector wage freeze.”