Horwath admits to $1.4-billion ‘mistake’

NDP now forecasts it would run $4.7-billion deficit in first year

OTTAWA— Andrea Horwath has admitted to a $1.4-billion math “mistake” in her NDP platform that will increase the annual deficits her government would run if it is elected June 7.

Money was earmarked as a reserve fund to cover unexpected expenses or cash shortfalls but was booked as revenue instead of an expense, with a party official insisting that was appropriate because they don’t plan to spend it.

But Horwath, who on Friday said, “I don’t have specifics around the detail” aaand boasted the plan had been reviewed a and approved by former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, reversed course Sunday.

“When the mistake was identified, we fixed it right away,” she said, insisting the party can keep its promises, including dental care, pharmacare and improved daycare.

“It will mean our deficit will take a little longer to eradicate,” acknowledged Horwath, whose party has been on the upswing in public opinion polls and is running second to Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

Instead of $3.3 billion, the NDP now forecasts its deficit would grow to $4.7 billion in its first year because of the miscalculation in its platform document.

While the reserve fund was budgeted at $700 million, moving it from the revenue column to the expense side doubles the fiscal impact to $1.4 billion. By law, all governments must set money aside in a reserve account for contingencies.

The Liberal campaign quickly pounced on the “major” error, saying it shows the NDP is not ready to govern.

“This is a mistake that will lead straight to higher taxes and lower job growth,” said Deb Matthews, a retiring MPP and veteran cabinet minister.

Horwath’s rise in the polls ahead of Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals has put her under increased scrutiny. Ford’s Conservatives declined to comment on the NDP’s fiscal gaffe.

On a mostly quiet Sunday on the campaign trial, Wynne acknowledged in Mississauga that she’s in a “horse race” to keep the premier’s job she has held for five years.

Ford attended two campaign events in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto — where he needs to make a breakthrough — but his handlers did not schedule a scrum with the media after being under fire for two days.

“Let me be clear: absolutely not,” he said when reporters approached him to ask if any information allegedly stolen from the operators of toll Hwy. 407 was used by any of his candi- dates or the party.

Wynne and Horwath have been calling for an Ontario Provincial Police investigation of questionable PC candidate nominations involving the possible political use of 60,000 customer names, addresses and phone numbers allegedly stolen from the database of 407 ETR.

Ford’s rivals have raised concerns that information was used by the PCs party’s candidate Sandhu, for Brampton East, Simmer Sandhu a former 407 ETR employee, who resigned after his employer called police about an alleged “internal theft” of information. Sandhu has maintained any allegations aagainst him are “totally base- less.”

Ford’s schedule for Victoria Day does not include any scrums with the media. Earlier Sunday, Horwath said she’s willing to refine her promise to stop gas price “gouging” at the pumps— particularly before long weekends — with a cap on how much the cost per litre can be raised.

“That’s certainly something we’ll look at,” she told reporters when asked how her plan to set prices on Sundays or Mondays would prevent gas stations from raising prices early and penalizing motorists all week. An NDP government would mandate the arm’s-length Ontario Energy Board, which now regulates natural gas and electricity prices, to handle the gasoline and diesel fuel regulation.

Ontario would not be the first province to do so. Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces regulate transportation fuel prices. But a study commissioned by the Ontario Energy Board last fall warns that such measures do not necessarily work in favour of motorists, in part by preventing price wars.

For the PCs, Ford has promised to cut gas taxes 10 cents a litre, which would cost the provincial provincial treasury $1.2 billion in lost revenue, as a way to “put money back in people’s pockets.”

With less than three weeks to the election, Horwath’s campaign concentrated Sunday on Liberal and Conservative ridings they hope to gain, with additional stops in Kingston, Napanee and Peterborough.

The NDP does not currently hold a seat east of Oshawa, with Horwath joking that her MPP there, Jennifer French, is the party’s “eastern toehold.”