MPP praises budget critics say Grits are buying votes

Jeff Leal, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said he was “very pleased” with the Ontario budget released on Wednesday.

“It’s all about making life more affordable,” he said.

The budget contains many features that will help people in Peterborough-Kawartha, Leal said, including free daycare for children from the age of 2 1/2 until they start kindergarten and free prescription drugs for seniors.

Meanwhile the Ontario Liberals will run a deficit of $6.7 billion in 2018-19 to offer this pre-election budget - this, after they balanced the books in 2017 and promised surpluses for the next several years.

Dave Smith, the PC candidate for Peterborough-Kawartha in the provincial election in June, said he wasn’t impressed with that deficit.

“The good part is, it’s the last budget (Premier) Kathleen Wynne will introduce,” he said. “Ten weeks before the election, and they’re buying votes with someone else’s money.”

Sean Conway, the NDP candidate for Peterborough-Kawartha, called the budget disappointing.

“It seems kind of hoolow, lastditch,” he said. “there’s a lot of flash and no substance.”

But Leal said the government has been investing for years in programs that Ontarians have requested.

“This is just a continuation of the investments we’ve made over 15 years,” he said.

Take pharmacare for seniors, for example: Leal pointed out that OHIP + will expand to offer free prescription drugs to people 65 and older.

He also said the Ontario Drug Benefit annual deductible and copay will be eliminated, which is expected to save the average senior $240 annu-

ally.

Elsie Akey, 69, said that will help her.

Although she worked for the same company for 38 years, she said it went bankrupt and wiped out her pension.

She works part-time at Bowlerama and receives a modest pension since her husband died three years ago, she said.

The prescriptions that help her manage her diabetes are mostly covered, she added - but she doesn’t know what new drug costs she might face, down the road. “So will this help? Sure it will,” she said.

Yet Carol Koeslag, 86, was skeptical about the budget on Tuesday.

Koeslag is widowed and has physical disabilities; she lives independently in her own home. She said she manages fine - and she thinks many other seniors do, too. “I think seniors already get a good deal, for what they get for free,” she said.

If the Ontario Liberals wanted to help people, she wonders why they didn’t do it two years ago not 10 weeks before the election.

“It’s so obvious. Whose votes are you trying to buy?” she asked. “Seniors are too smart for that.”

But Leal said it’s not about currying favour with voters: he’s heard from many Ontarians who need programs to assist them.

“They expect our government to step up and help with their burdens,” he said.

The Liberals are trying to “step up”, Leal said - and he sees that as very important.

“Especially in these uncertain times.”