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Ontario Budget 2012: McGuinty Wants Opposition Not To Give Spending Suggestions

CP  |  By Posted: 03/30/2012 12:50 pm Updated: 03/30/2012 3:23 pm

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OTTAWA - Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won't consider any new spending suggestions for the budget, even if that means Ontario voters end up going back to the polls.

He says voters don't want another election six months after the last one, but he's willing to campaign on the budget if he has to.

The minority Liberals need one of the opposition parties to support their budget to avoid triggering an election, but the Opposition Conservatives have already said they'll vote against it.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was out mainstreeting this morning in Toronto in an effort to get more feedback on whether her party should support the budget.

The NDP have set up a hotline and say they've received thousands of calls from people who have different opinions about the budget, which aims to eliminate the $15-billion deficit in five years.

A crucial vote on the budget could come as soon as next Thursday, but no later than April 24.

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  • What's In The Ontario Budget 2012

  • Health Care

    The 2012 Ontario budget freezes pay for doctors, and extends a pay freeze for health care executives. The province will begin means-testing seniors' prescription drugs, paid for under the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan, effectively meaning that the 5 per cent wealthiest seniors covered by the plan will have to pay more into the plan. Seniors with incomes over $100,000 and senior couples with combined incomes above $160,000 will be affected. Increases in health care spending will be capped at 2.1 per cent per year.

  • Education

    The budget freezes pay for teachers. A pay freeze for educational executives, already in place, will be extended. School boards in low-population areas will be amalgamated, and "under-utilized" schools will be shut. Student transportation will be cut by $34 million.

  • Senior Citizens

    The province will begin means-testing seniors' prescription drugs, paid for under the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan, effectively meaning that the 5 per cent wealthiest seniors covered by the plan will have to pay more into the plan. Seniors with incomes over $100,000 and senior couples with combined incomes above $160,000 will be affected.

  • Social Assistance

    Welfare rates will be frozen and planned increases to the Ontario Child Benefit will be delayed.

  • Taxes

    There are no tax hikes in the 2012 Ontario budget, but it does freeze the corporate tax rate at 11.5 per cent, foregoing planned reductions in the tax rate to 10 per cent. The freeze is expected to save $1.5 billion over three years.

  • Energy

    Ontario will cap the 10 per cent hydro bill rebate at 3,000 kilowatt-hours, a limit high enough that most homes won't be affected, but businesses could be. Reducing the tax credit will save $470 million over three years.

  • Crime & Security

    On top of the four jails the province already plans to close, the budget adds two more to the closure list -- one in Brantford and one in Chatham. Overtime for jail guards and the Ontario Provincial Police will be reduced.

  • Business Initiatives

    Ontario plans to reduce spending on business support programs by $250 million by merging a number of different programs.

  • Gambling & Lotteries

    The province aims to increase revenue by increasing the number of gambling facilities. [Details to come]

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OTTAWA - Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won't consider any new spending suggestions for the budget, even if that means Ontario voters end up going back to the polls.He says voters don't want another ...
OTTAWA - Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won't consider any new spending suggestions for the budget, even if that means Ontario voters end up going back to the polls.He says voters don't want another ...
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J.J. McCullough

J.J. McCullough: Ontario's 2012 Budget: "Meh."

Expectations were thus fairly high this week that Premier Dalton McGuinty and his loveable understudy, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, would finally show some signs of appreciating the sheer magnitude of the fiscal

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Taylor Jay
I don't align myself with any political party.
44 Fans
04:33 AM on 04/01/2012
why couldn't we tax a little more to corporations and a little less from Canadians?
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IranianDude
117 Fans
02:12 PM on 04/01/2012
Big corporations run this whole country that's why. Canadians are irrelevant in political narrative of diseased conservative.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
295 Fans
 
08:26 PM on 03/31/2012
The NDP won't form the next government so if they don't like the budget then they can say no. The electortate will let them know what they think. Hudak, I am sure will get it right the second time and Hudak is like Mike Harris . What really is the choice?
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JMM108
0 Fans
08:22 AM on 03/31/2012
McGuinty and Harper budgets devastate Ontario energy savings industry

Ontario’s energy savings industry faces devastating long-term job losses.

In Budget 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper eliminated the federal ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes program. This will result in immediate job losses in every Canadian community.

Ontario is now the only Canadian province without an active home energy retrofit incentive program. Prime Minister Harper’s cut means that Ontario’s energy savings industry has no support whatsoever, as the Ontario Home Energy Savings Program was eliminated in last year’s Ontario budget. By failing to reinstate a provincial retrofit program in his Ontario 2012 Budget, Premier McGuinty has colluded with Prime Minister Harper to decimate the energy savings industry in the country’s most populous province.

Hundreds of Ontario energy savings companies will be forced to downsize, lay off staff, or shut down altogether. Ontario’s energy savings industry will be devastated by long-term job losses.

With Canada poised to invest billions in new energy projects like oil sands, nuclear and wind farms, the one-two punch of Harper’s actions and Premier McGuinty’s failure to reinstate support for Ontario’s energy savings industry is disastrous.

Energy efficiency should be at the top of Ontario’s energy and jobs agenda, not the bottom.

http://www.SaveEnergyFirst.ca
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CharlesBrown008
91 Fans
11:39 AM on 03/31/2012
I suspect that McGuinty is Harper's lackey ever since his involvement in the G20 protest. As long as McGuinty governs, the federal Liberal would lose in Ontario, the most populous province.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Warren Yuill
Jesus Built My Hot-Rod
221 Fans
03:46 PM on 03/30/2012
Wrong tact.
Folks in Ontario are worried but not prepared to let themselves be bullied.
Are we gonna see another election in Ont real soon?
The only problem is, nobody wants to be in charge right now.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
343 Fans
06:21 PM on 03/30/2012
All bluster and posing. Conservatives know that the NDP will support the government and so do the NDP. After the federal Reform Party Budget this week Hudak's Cons would lose seats, giving the Liberals a majority. It's all for show.
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CharlesBrown008
91 Fans
07:20 PM on 03/30/2012
I think McGuinty does want out. Before the last election, he was looking for excuses to sell crown corporations rediculously cheap and I suspected that he figured wasn't going to win the last election and was signalling the private sector for a similar deal that Harris got. I think McGuinty was resigned to lose the last election, and is surprised that he won. He isn't prepared to lead for the next 4-5 years let alone as a leader of a minority government. He is looking for an excuse out and is using the bullying tactic to force the hands of the NDP.
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JMM108
0 Fans
03:10 PM on 03/30/2012
McGuinty and Harper budgets devastate Ontario energy savings industry

Ontario’s energy savings industry faces devastating long-term job losses.

In Budget 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper eliminated the federal ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes program. This will result in immediate job losses in every Canadian community.

Ontario is now the only Canadian province without an active home energy retrofit incentive program. Prime Minister Harper’s cut means that Ontario’s energy savings industry has no support whatsoever, as the Ontario Home Energy Savings Program was eliminated in last year’s Ontario budget. By failing to reinstate a provincial retrofit program in his Ontario 2012 Budget, Premier McGuinty has colluded with Prime Minister Harper to decimate the energy savings industry in the country’s most populous province.

Hundreds of Ontario energy savings companies will be forced to downsize, lay off staff, or shut down altogether. Ontario’s energy savings industry will be devastated by long-term job losses.

With Canada poised to invest billions in new energy projects like oil sands, nuclear and wind farms, the one-two punch of Harper’s actions and Premier McGuinty’s failure to reinstate support for Ontario’s energy savings industry is disastrous.

Energy efficiency should be at the top of Ontario’s energy and jobs agenda, not the bottom.
http://www.SaveEnergyFirst.ca
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
toofarleft4thisworld
The Right Is So Wrong
358 Fans
03:03 PM on 03/30/2012
the Tories don't think it's tough enough...the NDP thinks it's too tough. let's go to the polls and return the obvious party of consensus...the Liberals. the NDP should support the government on this one.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
343 Fans
06:23 PM on 03/30/2012
They will. Both the Tories and the NDP would have their collective @_$_$_e_s handed to them if they forced another election so soon.
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CharlesBrown008
91 Fans
06:56 PM on 03/30/2012
You are wrong. If the NDP fails to call a confidence vote then its a signal to voters that they are not ready, and if they are not ready now then they won't be ready a few months or years from now. Its the same thing with Ignatief failing to form a coalition government when all of the opposition parties were aligned to give him leadership. He declined and therefore proving that he wasn't ready when opportunity came knocking, and nobody was willing to give him a second chance. McGuinty is using a bullying tactic, and people don't like bullies, but they like victims less.
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