The province of Ontario faces significant financial challenges. Ontario finance minister Charles Sousa had a great opportunity in his fall economic update to address some of these issues. Unfortunately, it seems that the Ontario government’s economic plan is based on fiction more than fact.
“Our current provincial debt is $291 Billion and rising, with absolutely no plan to reign in spending. This government seems to want to spend their way to prosperity. That is not a strong fiscal plan, that is a plan for bankruptcy,” said Gareth Neilson, Director of Communications for Fair Pensions For All.
Currently the government spends over $10 Billion per year in debt servicing costs, now the third largest government expenditure. When interest rates rise, and they will, the cost to pay for our debt is going to increase significantly, and therefore our services will have to be cut. This is not a good approach to fiscal management and is certainly not sustainable.
Minster Sousa remarked that: “ Responsibility and fairness guides us” while at the same time suggesting that the education portion of our property taxes may have to increase to avoid what he calls an: “Erosion of support” for our schools. Ontario has the second highest paid teachers in the world but this government wants us to pay more money. How is that responsible or fair?
The government is also calling for a “play or pay” program for Ontario business. Essentially this government is demanding that companies to invest in Ontario or be taxed heavily. This government fails to understand that it is exactly their policies that limit the interest of business to invest in this province. High levels of taxes, fees and red tape coupled with this government’s insatiable appetite to tax those who actually make profits, reduce the interest that businesses have in Ontario.
Lastly, this government made a failed attempt at addressing income security for seniors. Blaming the federal government for not increasing CPP is simply not a plan. They realize that most provinces and the federal government have no interest in doubling CPP, so they have floated the idea of an Ontario Pension Plan. However, in this economic update they gave no details on how they plan to implement this policy. Nor did they give Ontarians an estimate on how much it would cost. With public sector pension plans having a combined unfunded liability of $100 Billion, it would seem prudent for this government to deal with the problems in the current pension system before trying to create a new one.
Ontario used to be the strongest province in our great country, and now we have become the laughingstock of Canada. It is time that we get back to the basic fundamental financial policies that made this province great. We must deal with our spending problem. We must deal with our debt problem. We must deal with our deficit problem. We must go down a different path. If we do not, we will all have a big problem.
Bill Tufts, Fair Pensions For All, founded in January 2009, our goal is to promote an honest and fair analysis of our pension system; to expose abuse and waste within the system; to develops and promote new ideas and concepts on pensions based on fairness for all.
We maintain that it is every Canadian’s right to receive sufficient income in retirement to afford an acceptable quality of life.
