• Focus of Ontario’s spring budget must be deficit reduction • Budget can be balanced with significant spending reductions • Government must balance promised tax cuts with spending reductions
TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has released its pre-budget recommendations to the Ontario government in the lead up to the spring budget. The report was tabled with the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services.
“The number one priority of the government going into this year’s budget needs to be tackling the province’s $14.5-billion deficit,” said CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn. “The government must provide citizens with a timeline for a balanced budget and get it done before the next election.”
The CTF prebudget report recommends achieving this balance using a combination of spending reductions and increasing government revenue without raising taxes, for example, by privatizing the LCBO. The CTF’s prebudget report also asks the government to move ahead with tax cuts that were promised by Premier Doug Ford during the election as well as a number of measures that would improve transparency and accountability.
“The recipe for a balanced budget isn’t complicated – the government needs to reduce costs,” said Van Geyn. “We recommend a number of cost reductions such as reduced government advertising, ending corporate welfare and hydro reform.
“Ontario families are counting on the provincial government to find efficiencies so that it can deliver the tax relief that’s desperately needed.”
The full text of the 2019 CTF prebudget report is available HERE.
