For Immediate Release
May 12, 2005

BUDGET MISSES OPPORTUNITY TO HELP ORDINARY FAMILIES

(Queen’s Park) – The McGuinty Liberals’ fourth fiscal plan in two years completely misses a massive opportunity to help the people of Ontario, said Haliburton-Victoria-Brock MPP, Laurie Scott.

“This budget is about more broken promises and missed opportunities,” said Laurie Scott. “It’s clear from today’s budget that the McGuinty Liberals had a massive windfall in revenues yet still broke their promise to balance the budget by 2007. They could have invested in services and helped farmers, while reducing the deficit and provide tax relief but, instead, they just spent more money.”

This budget ignores the needs of hospitals and farmers, as these groups made clear in their reaction to the budget. Ron Bonnett, President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture called the budget a “huge disappointment for Ontario’s farmers.” Hilary Short, President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association indicated that hospitals are “very disappointed that the funding increase announced does not cover the projected costs of providing hospital care to Ontarians in the coming year.”

Despite a $2.6-billion increase in revenues last year, over and above the illegal health tax, the McGuinty Liberals still managed to add $800 million to the deficit for 2004-05.

“There is nothing in this budget for farmers whatsoever – in fact, they have cut the agriculture budget again. That’s not good enough for our farmers, many of whom are struggling just to survive,” said Laurie Scott “Unfortunately, in the 2005 Budget, the McGuinty Liberals thanked everyone except the hard-working Ontario families who were responsible for the additional tax revenue they collected. They should have provided at least a 10% reduction in the health tax and they should not have increased the deficit.”

The 2005 budget shows the McGuinty Liberals are clearly making things up as they go along. For the fourth time in two years, they changed their plan to balance the budget. The McGuinty Liberals committed initially during the election to balance the budget in their first year, then changed their pledge in the 2004 budget to balance by 2007 and, now, they hope to balance the books by 2008-09.

“Four times the McGuinty Liberals have presented a plan to balance the budget, and four times they’ve broken their promise,” said Laurie Scott. “You simply can’t trust a government that keeps breaking its promises, and then breaks broken promises. How can the people of Ontario believe anything the McGuinty Liberals say?”

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