March 29, 2005

Tories criticize Liberals

Government revisiting plan to balance books

TORONTO

The Ontario government will “revisit’’ its promise to balance the books by the end of its first mandate in 2007, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said last week.

Sorbara said the promise made by the Liberal government a year ago in its first budget would be revised in the fiscal update expected later this spring.

“We set out a budget and a deficit reduction plan in the last budget and we’re going to revisit that in the next budget but I’m not going to speculate on what might be said in that,’’ Sorbara said before a cabinet meeting.

“Every year, with every budget you revisit the plans that you’ve made in the last budget, you see if any amendments are necessary, you see how circumstances might change.’’

When the Liberals came to office in October 2003, a former provincial auditor pegged the deficit left by the Conservative government at $5.6 billion.

The government gave the appearance the deficit had been drastically reduced last spring, when it recorded a $3.9-billion revenue gain from changes in electricity pricing.

But the province’s auditor objected to the accounting method, and last week the Liberal government said it would adjust its figures to show the gain over a 12-year period.

As a result, Sorbara faced the cameras to admit that this year’s deficit would be closer to $6 billion, not the $2.2 billion he projected last spring.

Conservative Elizabeth Witmer criticized the government for failing to articulate and stick to a sound fiscal plan.

“This is a government with no fiscal plan, the fiscal plan changes from day to day,’’ she said.

Last year’s budget increased spending on health and education. But it also introduced Ontario’s new health tax, which raised $1.6 billion in the first year and is estimated to put another $2.4 billion into provincial coffers this fiscal year.

Economists say the Liberal deficit reduction plan will be behind schedule if the government continues to raise spending.

And New Democrat Marilyn Churley says the only hope for eliminating the deficit before the Liberal mandate runs out in 2007 is to slash spending more drastically than the Tories did.

“They’re not going to do that, although we will see some slashing,’’ Churley said.

“But they’re not going to be able to balance that budget and he’s backing off from that now.’’

Sorbara admitted the government is under pressure.

“There’s all kinds of pressures in virtually every area of public expenditure, notably health care (and) education,’’ he said.

The Canadian Press

Print | Email | Comment