[RCO]

( Ontario originally planned to balance the books this year but now were suddenly hearing there is going to be at least an $8 billion dollar deficit and increased spending before the election and this year , looks like wynne is desperate and decided to open the floodgates and spend money on any project in any liberal riding they feel they can still win )


Ontario is going back into deficit in a pre-election budget


FRED CHARTRAND/THE CANADIAN PRESS



Justin Giovannetti


Published March 7, 2018

Updated 5 hours ago



Ontario's Finance Minister says his province is going back into deficit in a pre-election budget he will table on March 28.

Speaking to a business crowd in downtown Toronto, Charles Sousa says the province will run a deficit of up to $8-billion, breaking a key promise by the Liberal government to balance the books.

"We will be running a deficit, starting next year at less than one per cent of GDP. Our budget will have a clear path to track back to balance. But let's be clear, we are making this choice deliberately," Mr. Sousa said.


Mr. Sousa could not tell reporters after his speech how large the deficit will be or when he expects Ontario's books to be balanced again. While the Finance Minister was able to balance last year's budget, the first in a decade where the province posted a surplus, he said new money now had to be directed at health-care and child-care.

The deficit comes at a time when Ontario's economic engine has been roaring. GDP growth in 2017 was at a seven-year high according to RBC Bank, and is expected to top two per cent this year. Unemployment is also near its lowest level in decades. Mr. Sousa said the province was using the good economic times to open the spending taps. "We are choosing to put our strengthened fiscal position to work to address our priorities," he said.


With the risk of a collapse in the North America free-trade agreement, a growing number of "Buy American" bills passing state legislatures and the promise of tariffs on steel and aluminum by U.S. President Donald Trump, Mr. Sousa said the budget was based on "prudent" projections due to significant economic risks in the future.

To the opposition, the announcement of a deficit budget is seen as an attempt to buy votes in the June election. With Premier Kathleen Wynne looking to keep her Liberal party in power, the budget is a "final, last-ditch ploy to win the next election," according to Progressive Conservative finance critic Lisa MacLeod.

"After promising a balanced budget for years to come, the Wynne Liberals are already changing their tune and plunging the province back into deficit. They can't be trusted to keep their word," she said.

New Democrat John Vanthof said that deficit promise was the sign of an "old, tired government." Ontario's NDP has yet to release its election platform and Mr. Vanthof would not say whether the party will promise to table a balanced budget.

Mr. Sousa said the spring budget will set up a contrast with the province's Tory opposition, which is currently embroiled in a leadership contest. The leading candidates to take over the party have faced criticism for the budget plans they have teased so far, which include tax cuts, spending increases and the promise of finding billions in wasteful spending. Mr. Sousa said the Tory plans could plunge the province into a deficit of as much as $16-billion, a number the candidates have disputed.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-is-going-back-into-deficit-in-a-pre-election-budget/article38233950/

[RCO]

Ontario finance minister says budget will not be balanced
.


Shawn Jeffords, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, March 7, 2018 4:59PM EST



TORONTO -- Ontario's Liberal government is breaking its promise to maintain a balanced budget this year, saying its upcoming fiscal plan will run a deficit in order to fund programs for seniors, women and students ahead of a spring election.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa said Wednesday that the budget will be delivered on March 28.

"I firmly believe you have to invest to create growth," Sousa said in a speech to a Toronto business audience. "You cannot create jobs by beggaring your future prospects. As I have said many times -- balancing the budget is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. And that end is a stronger Ontario."

Sousa, who will be delivering his sixth budget as finance minister, said the province will run a deficit of less than one per cent of its gross domestic product starting next year but would not confirm a specific figure.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Ontario's gross domestic product sat at $794 billion in 2016, the latest publicly available data. Using those figures, the government's budget deficit could run as high as almost $8 billion.

Last year, the Liberals posted the province's first balanced budget in a decade and had projected balanced books through to 2019-20. As recently as November, in the government's Fall Economic Statement, Sousa said the 2018 budget would be balanced.

The minister said Wednesday that the decision to run a deficit is, in part, a response to challenges the province is facing. He hinted repeatedly that the budget will include measures to help women, students and seniors.

"We have to invest more and that doesn't come cheap," he said. "So here is the choice: ignore these costs of care to stay in balance or use our fiscal room to invest more in mental health, long-term care and child care."

The budget will outline a path to return to balance, Sousa noted.

The minister also suggested the opposition Progressive Conservatives, who have are days away from selecting a new party leader, did not plan to balance the books if they took power after the June election.

"They will cut services, roll back minimum wage and sacrifice those working at the lowest incomes," he said.

Tory finance critic Lisa MacLeod said the upcoming fiscal blueprint amounts to nothing more than a "last-ditch ploy to win the next election."

"This is a government that has no real beliefs other than their own political self-interest," she said. "Now, right before an election, they're cynical and willing to do or say anything to cling to power."

NDP finance critic John Vanthof said the Liberal government's budget is an "election document" and Ontario residents shouldn't be fooled by the spending it's going to pledge.

"An old, tired government like this should not be evaluated on a budget full of promises," he said. "It should be evaluated on its history and where its direction has been. Its direction hasn't been for the ordinary people of this province."


https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-finance-minister-says-budget-will-not-be-balanced-1.3833200

[Bugs]

Don't you think it would 'destroy DeSousa's credibility if he kept the pretence up any further? He has already stretched accounting standards a long way for his party. Besides, who believes it anyway?

I think the electorate's mind is made up, or almost made up. I don't think even the shenanigans in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario will change their mind. Wynne has got to go, no matter what.

[RCO]

one has to wonder why wynne is doing this ? they had been saying for the last couple of years the budget was soon going to be balanced or at least a very small deficit . what was announced yesterday would seem to indicate all of that was not true


either wynne has decided they need to spend extra money on key areas and ridings before the election and its simply a spending spree

or they want to campaign against the pc's on the basis there going to make cuts , so deciding to spend like crazy so the pc's would have no choice but to campaign against the new spending


another possibility they know there going to lose so spending the money now so the pc's can't or so if the pc's win there isn't enough money left for them to implement campaign promises such as lower taxes or other commitments , that the provinces finances would simply be in such bad shape the pc's wouldn't be able to implement there agenda


but the fact there might now be an $8 billion dollar deficit , its proof none of wynne's new spending commitments were never truly affordable , things like free tuition , free prescription drugs , whatever else she promised I can't recall , all of it was never truly affordable and further plunged Ontario into debt

[cosmostein]

The last budget likely wasn't actually balanced and if it was it was largely as a result of a one time cash injection from sell off crown assets and a short term boost as a result of the house market and the land transfer tax boon (around 650m)

The likelihood this budget was going to be balanced as always minimum, however the size of the deficit is entirely par for the course with the current government.

An 8b dollar deficit on a potential 140b dollar revenue is still utterly insane given the record revenues and create new means of government revenue generation in place.

If you cant balance the books on this sort of revenue you can't possibly be trusted to do so if revenue stayed stagnant or even retracted for a few years.

[cosmostein]

[Bugs]

You could be right about the Liberal approach ... but they have become so obvious to enough people that the tide has simply turned against them.

I could imagine the usurper campaigning on an "there-they-go-again" theme.

If a huge increase in the minimum wage was met with mixed feelings ... it shows you that even the simple folk aren't entirely buying it. And that's money in hand. Are they likely to buy some pie-in-the-sky benefit?

[Toronto Centre]

None of these posts are wrong per se....

But if the PC's dont get the right person then Wynne has a big chance to repeat, and thats nothing any of us here want.

The wrong choice, easily defeated (IMO) is Doug Ford. His abortion discussion is already doing it.

ETA:After the fact.... LOL...perhaps I should have read those poll numbers in the other thread first.

[cosmostein]

[RCO]

[Bugs]

[Toronto Centre]

[cosmostein]

I have clearly missed something?
I wasn't aware the PCs were out of money?

I was of the impression the party had 16m after all debts cleared from the last election as of May 2017 with the numbers adding around 3 - 4m after the new rules in the latter half of the year. The last projection was over 20m in the warchest heading into this year?

[Toronto Centre]

[cosmostein]