Flaherty blasts Ontario budget
Federal Tory criticizes in Toronto as premier defends plan in Ottawa
In a political tale of two cities, Premier Dalton Mcguinty went to Ottawa on Friday to tout his budget while federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty flew to Toronto to trash it.
After Mcguinty accused Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives of painting themselves into a corner by refusing to support his fiscal plan — potentially toppling his minority government by April 24, forcing a late May election — Flaherty took a shot at the premier.
“Quite frankly, Ontario’s spending mismanagement is a problem for the entire country because of the size of the economy in the province of Ontario,” Flaherty said after a speech to the Canadian Club.
Flaherty’s budget on Thursday predicted an end to Conservative government deficits by 2015 while Mcguinty’s Liberal blueprint would see the province running deficits until 2018, with annual interest payments of $10 billion.
“I hope that they’re able to manage their spending better than they have been able to do over the past eight or nine years,” Flaherty, a former Ontario finance minister, said after his speech at the Fairmont Royal York. The Liberals wondered why Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak wasn’t delivering the attack lines. In his hometown of Ottawa, Mcguinty said his Liberal government is ready to fight an election over his budget but he remains open to negotiations with either opposition party — within limits. “Don’t come to us with new spending . . . having said that, if there’s anything else that we might consider we are more than open and eager to chat with you.” Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and her staff were spending the weekend working on proposals to amend the budget. Horwath said she feels an obligation to be “thoughtful and reasonable” with her ideas, most likely in regard to jobs, health care and home care. But “any conversation that’s going to lead to compromise has to have compromise on both sides of the table,” she warned. Mcguinty said Tuesday’s budget was crafted with the priorities of rival parties in mind — a public sector wage freeze and clampdown on public sector pensions for the Tories and a halt in further corporate tax cuts to please the NDP. Tory finance critic and MPP Peter Shurman said the fact Ontario will run a $15.3 billion deficit in the fiscal year ending Saturday and is forecasting a deficit of $15.2 billion next year as spending increases shows “this is anything but an austerity budget.”