The Ontario Liberals’ fourth and final budget before the Oct. 10 election was released on Thursday—drawing mixed reactions from local and provincial leaders.
Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance minister Greg Sorbara touted the budget as one that invests primarily in children and their families.
“This budget expands opportunity for children and their families who are working hard to succeed,” Sorbara said in a press release last week.
“Expanding opportunity creates new economic strength and forms the foundation of a successful, caring, and compassionate society,” he added.
“The government is trying to promote this as a budget that’s going to make a difference for folks who are struggling on low incomes,” NDP leader and Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton said Thursday from Toronto.
“We need a $10 minimum wage today,” he argued. “The premier who gave himself a $40,000 pay increase just before Christmas is saying to low-paid workers you’ll have to wait until 2011 for a $10 minimum wage.”
The NDP is calling for an immediate increase in the minimum wage from the current $8 to $10 while the Liberals have promised a minimum wage of $10.25 by 2010.
Included in the 2007 budget is a new Ontario Child Benefit (OCB), which provides an additional $2.1 billion over the first five years to provide benefits to all children under 18 in low-income families.
The program is expected to affect 1.3 million children when fully implemented.
“They talk about an Ontario Child Benefit, but it really won’t make a difference in people’s lives until four or five years from now,” charged Hampton.
“The Ontario Child Benefit won’t even make up for the money they claw back now for low-income kids,” he warned.
The federal government currently provides $1,500 a year for children in low-income families. “But the McGuinty government claws all that money back,” Hampton said.
“[The OCB] would only give low-income kids $250 this next year while they continue to claw back the $1,500,” he explained.
Overall, this budget sets aside money for programs that will not be fully implemented for another four years.
“It’s a litany of empty gestures and pre-election promises from a chronic promise-breaker,” Hampton said in a press release.
The budget also provides little for the north,” he said.
“There’s nothing new for the forest sector, and there’s nothing new in hydro rates,” Hampton noted. “The Ministry of Natural Resources will take another $35 million budget cut.
“The MNR is already struggling, so this will mean the closure, I think, of MNR offices and cuts to MNR staff. That’s pretty clear.
“This budget will not make a difference in the lives of the average working person in Northwestern Ontario,” Hampton concluded.
One move aimed specifically at the region was the appointment of a Northwestern Ontario Economic Facilitator.
Dr. Robert Rosehart, president of Wilfrid Laurier University for the last 10 years, will “work with local people and businesses to help inspire a new generation of growth in the northwest,” according to the Sorbara.
Dr. Rosehart is the former president of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and the former chair of a provincial commission that made a number of recommendations on how to improve the economy of Northern Ontario.
But Hampton was critical of the move.
“The person they’re naming as a facilitator doesn’t even live in Northwestern Ontario anymore,” he noted, also adding the budget document doesn’t describe exactly what Dr. Rosehart’s role will be.
“It’s bizarre. There’s no money, no program, no plan . . . so it’s pretty empty,” Hampton said.
Fort Frances Coun. Tannis Drysdale, on the other hand, was encouraged by the announcement.
“It’s clear the government of Ontario is paying attention,” she said.
The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, for which Coun. Drysdale is a representative, currently is working on a report entitled “Forging the Future,” in conjunction with individuals from labour, education, cultural groups, and Chambers of Commerce in the region.
The report is an economic recovery plan, including a recommendation to create a Northwestern Ontario Regional Development Authority (NWORDA). It has been endorsed in principle by local municipal associations.
“In response to that, it appears the government has appointed Dr. Rosehart to come and work with NOMA to review those plans and perhaps help facilitate them,” Coun. Drysdale noted.
The final report will be presented at NOMA’a annual general meeting in Dryden on April 25-28, and Dr. Rosehart already has confirmed his attendance.
Also included in last week’s budget was a $540 million cut in the Business Education Tax, to be phased in over seven years.
“Businesses in northern municipalities will enjoy an average 32 percent reduction in provincial business education taxes by 2014,” according to the Ministry of Finance’s budget highlights.
Again, the delay in full implementation does nothing for businesses in the immediate future, Hampton noted.
Coun. Drysdale said she and Mayor Roy Avis lobbied for changes to the business education tax using an analysis they did on a property in Fort Frances compared to a business property in Bracebridge, where the business education taxes are lowest in the province.
“We made a presentation to the pre-budget standing committee on economic affairs at their pre-budget consultations this year,” she noted.
“We are quite pleased that the government accepted our recommendations, however slowly they’re going to implement them,” Coun. Drysdale added.
Other items included in last week’s provincial budget were changes to the property tax assessment, including a move to a four-year reassessment cycle, up to $100 a month for low-income working families to help with rental costs, and a nearly $800 million increase in funding to school boards.
Fort Frances Times
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