Out-of-control spending central to Ont. election

With a debt of $311 billion, we can’t afford to borrow, Jim Merriam notes.

The 2018 Ontario election will be fought around the edges of the central issue facing the province: how much government can we afford? Premier Kathleen Wynne was right when she said the contest will offer a clear choice between her governing Liberals and the pollleading Conservatives. Here’s the premier: “There’s a stark choice on June 7. So we’re making a deliberate choice with our next budget.”

That budget, due March 28, is expected to begin a whole new era of spending since the government has abandoned its commitment to balance the books in 2018. (It never appeared to be a serious commitment.) Instead, Wynne said there will be new money for mental health, seniors care and the environment. Across the great political divide, Doug Ford the new Progressive Conservative leader, said he will campaign on a balanced budget and continue to meet needs by eliminating government waste.

Ford said he can cut billions through efficiencies, without any government employees losing their jobs.

In fact, the leaders of both parties reached into thin air and grabbed numbers to support their arguments. Wynne pulled 40,000 from nowhere, saying that’s how many jobs Ford will cut. For his part, Ford has talked about cutting some $6 billion from provincial expenditures. Although I have serious reservations about Ford as premier, he is absolutely right about the need to reduce government spending.

With the province’s debt of over $311 billion, and carrying charges of $1 billion a month, Ontario can’t afford any more borrowing.

In the heartland — if rural Ontario can be called that — spending and debt at all levels of government, but particularly provincial, are a concern of many voters. The out-of-control spending over the past 15 years of Liberal rule is proof that the government does not have what’s best for the people, or the province, top of mind. Today’s debt levels simply are not sustainable, particularly in a province that has made life economically tough for small businesses and individuals in so many ways, from hydro rates to user fees. Shovelling money out the door on all kinds of priorities at Queen’s Park means more bureaucrats to keep track of it all. Since bureaucrats, in both the public and private sector produce nothing, the growth in their numbers is a warning sign of problems down the road.

The province needs entrepreneurs and business people willing to take a risk to establish entities that actually produce wealth and employ others.

The other party that should be in the running to win the June election, the NDP, seems anxious to outspend even the Liberals.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has pledged free dental care and pharmacare as part of a universal health care plan.

Such a plan would be ideal in a province as rich as Ontario, but we can’t afford it with today’s balance sheet and the waste of billions over the past 15 years. The party is to discuss costing in the days ahead.

We’re not even in the official election campaign yet, but we’re getting good insight to where it’s headed.

As I said, around the edges of the real issue.

Jim Merriam is a freelance writer who retired after a 45-year career in media that took him to newspapers and television stations from Ontario to Alberta and back.