FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2003

Excuses, Excuses

Liberal Throne Speech whines about Budget and glosses over big-ticket promises
while begging unions to keep quiet

QUEEN’S PARK -Dalton McGuinty's first Throne Speech is a laundry list of excuses, symbols and time-buying tactics, not an agenda for action, says MPP Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock). "In the election, Dalton McGuinty made over 200 promises that he said would bring change to Ontario," said Ms. Scott. "Well, he has delivered one change - he has changed his tune from what he promised just six weeks ago."

During the election, Dalton McGuinty signed a pledge to not run deficits. He has broken that pledge. "The Liberals can balance the budget - they could even have a surplus - they just don't want to," said Laurie. "Ontarians deserve better than the Liberals' cavalier decision to take a five-month holiday from fiscal responsibility. They even have the audacity to whine to the public, saying in their Throne Speech that 'this is not exactly the job your new government applied for.'" The Liberals will not even reduce the deficit by the $2 billion they allowed for in the financial plan they released with their platform.

Ms. Scott predicted that the Liberals will keep the deficit high to provide political cover for breaking more promises. "The Liberals knew - or were warned - that many of their promises were underestimated in terms of cost, or simply unrealistic," said Laurie. So far, the McGuinty Liberals have broken their promises to keep the budget balanced, maintain the hydro rate cap until 2006, and stop construction of 6,600 houses on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

"As Mr. McGuinty said during the election campaign, 'the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour,'" said Ms. Scott. "The Liberal record of broken promises is likely to continue." Other promises likely to be broken are: the class size cap in JK-Grade 3, hiring 8,000 nurses, and closing coal-fired power plants by 2007. The speech glossed over these big-ticket promises, with the education and health promises briefly mentioned in their respective sections, and the coal plant commitment buried in a rehashing of various platform commitments. Prominent in the speech, however, is a naked plea to the health, education and public sectors to "temper their requests for more."

"Although the Liberals will be doing very little, they will want voters to think they are doing a lot," said Laurie. "That's why they will try to implement a number of small or symbolic initiatives, in hopes of appearing pro-active, while distracting the public from breaking their larger promises." Examples from the speech include: prizes for teachers, a francophone education task force, and a provincial health council (this will be in addition to the federal health council that the Liberals just agreed to).

Ms. Scott observed that the purpose of the Liberals' Budget consultation exercise is to provide another excuse for doing nothing while buying time. "We just had a consultation - the election - during which the Liberals made over 200 promises," said Laurie. "Asking people to tell you how to balance the Budget and keep your promises is not leadership - it's ragging the puck. All this exercise will do is give interest groups a field day, signalling to them that soon it will be open season on taxpayer's pockets again. And with taxes going up January 1st, who's to argue with them?"

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