“The strategy fleshed out (by the McGuinty Liberals) to date continues to lack details… lack of resolve and drastic efforts to significantly curb spending growth in the next budget could be a cause for increased concerns for DBRS.”
- Dominion Bond Rating Service, February 16, 2012

QUEEN’S PARK – The drifting McGuinty Liberals must find the backbone not only to scale back the bloated public sector, but also to grow the struggling private sector economy to pick up the slack, Ontario PC Deputy Leader Christine Elliott said today.

“Day Two since the release of the Drummond report and the silence from the Premier’s Office is deafening,” Elliott said. “There remains no sign of what the Premier will do, or how he will do it, to tackle the unsustainable size and cost of his own government.”

As a result, Elliott said, Ontarians will have even less faith that the government knows how to tackle the other part of the equation when it comes to Ontario’s economic slump: how to kick-start the private sector economy and create jobs.

“The good news is that our Ontario PC Caucus has stepped up to the plate with a Job Creation Task Force, with a mandate to bring forward new ideas on job creation,” Elliott added.

The Task Force, struck last October, is working hard to remove barriers to new investment and jobs by advocating for lower taxes, affordable energy, a reduction and needless regulation and apprenticeship reform, Elliott added. “We’re also working to develop substantive policy alternatives to facilitate job growth through greater private-sector innovation and productivity.

“The fact is that the sheer bulk of this government is squeezing out the private sector economy,” Elliott stressed. “But with continued inaction by the Premier in clamping down on the public purse, it is plain he not only doesn’t get half the picture – he doesn’t get the picture at all.”

Thursday’s DBRS caution is just the latest warning that the Liberal government must snap out of its ongoing paralysis and table a plan of action, Elliott said.

“How many more shots across the bow does Dalton McGuinty need before he will do his job?”