Budget draws mixed reaction

The provincial budget brought down yesterday predictably drew a mixed reaction.
NDP leader and local MPP said the Harris government wants you to buy their goods now and pay later–and pay and pay and pay.
“Don’t be fooled by their sales pitch,” Hampton warned. “They’re not only selling you a bill of goods, they’re also trying to buy your vote.
He argued the Harris don’t-pay-a-cent budget is a combination of too-little-too-late spending, taking-credit-where-credit’s-not-due bragging, and I’ll-make-things-better-if-you-reelect-me promises.
“In the meantime, their phony tax scheme is taking billions of dollars out of health care, education, and services while creating hundreds of regressive user fees and setting up municipalities for big property tax increases,” he charged.
Hampton also said the fine print shows major cuts to capital and operating budgets for the most important ministries of Northern Ontario (Northern Development and Mines, Natural Resources, Transportation, and Environment).
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty said not to trust Mike Harris with what he termed yesterday’s “hit and run budget,” adding it was designed to distract people from the past three years of cuts.
“With an election a year away, Mike Harris wants you to forget his broken promises. He wants you to forget the chaos he has caused. And he wants you to forget how he has refused to listen to your concerns,” noted McGuinty.
The Ontario Federation of Labour also wasn’t impressed with yesterday’s budget, saying nothing in the document meshes with what people in communities across the province have to say about what the government has done to them, their families, and their communities.
“It seems as if Ontario has somehow become two provinces– home of real people and the home of the members of this government,” noted OFL president Wayne Samuelson.
“They are shifting figures around to sell themselves as the builders of health care and education. In fact they are the destroyers,” he charged.
The Ontario Hospital Association said yesterday’s budget contained both good news and bad news. On a positive note, it commended the government for recognizing that the true cost of providing health care extends well beyond patient care.
But the OHA warned that the immediate financial issues facing hospitals remains unresolved, noting hospitals are faced with significant challenges in light of population growth and increasing demand for services.
It also said hospitals recently have been confronted with the loss of some $40 million as a result of changes to the OHIP fee schedule for diagnostic services performed in hospitals.
But not everyone gave yesterday’s budget the thumbs down. Ontario responded enthusiastically to word of new investment to boost enrolment in high-demand programs, new and accelerated funding for research, and greater support for graduate students.
And the Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association lauded the provincial government’s plan to make new moneys available to school boards carrying debenture loans resulting from past funding inequities.
The OCSTA also commended the government for allocating an additional $69 million to assist school boards in implementing the fair funding model, and for providing more money for textbooks, science labs and equipment, and computer networking.