Budget 2012: Opposition Parties React

Tories comes out firmly against the budget, NDP hedges its bets on public consultation.

By Jamie Bradburn • Photos by Christopher Drost

Progressive Conservative finance critic Peter Sherman and leader Tim Hudak.

If Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s response to the provincial budget were a drinking game, anyone chugging at the phrases “$30 billion deficit” and “no jobs plan” would have gotten stinking drunk.

Hudak and his finance critic Peter Sherman painted a picture of a government that doesn’t grasp the seriousness of the economic situation it faces, preferring to continue spending on pet projects instead of devoting itself to job creation. They repeatedly emphasized how the province was making itself unattractive to investors through mounting debt and its decision to freeze corporate tax cuts.

When The Agenda’s Steve Paikin asked Hudak what could be changed to make the budget more palatable to the Tories, the PC leader replied that he would want a public-sector pay freeze with no exceptions across the board, fixes to the arbitration system, reduce the size of cabinet to 16 members, promote competition for delivery of public services, and reduce the business tax rate. Referring to continued support in the budget of green power, Hudak noted that the province “can’t afford to base a 21st-century energy policy on when the sun shines and wind blows.”

When it came to the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, aka the Drummond Report, Sherman initially didn’t mince words: “The Drummond Report was a scam. The Drummond Report was a delay tactic on the part of the McGuinty government to give them a year to do what it is you see today. The Drummond Report was a toolbox to be used to divide and conquer.” Yet moments later he accused the government of paying lip service to the report, cherry-picking whatever it liked, while Hudak continued to repeat Drummond’s doomsday scenario of a $30 billion deficit by 2017-18.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

While Hudak and Sherman were blunt about their party’s intention to vote against the budget, NDP leader Andrea Horwath played coy. Though elements like the corporate tax cut freeze (delaying a planned reduction) were crafted to gain the party’s approval, Horwath felt the budget fell short in terms of job creation/preservation and controlling utility costs. She was unhappy that the Liberals crafted the budget without consulting the opposition, even if previous news reports indicate that she and McGuinty had at least one conversation, and declared that she was the only person committed to making the minority government work.

If Hudak was hung up on doomsday scenarios (which she termed as a “my way or the highway approach”), Horwath endlessly repeated the NDP’s intention to consult the public, especially families, for their opinion of the budget before determining her course of action. Over the coming days the NDP aims to receive feedback via in-person discussions with MPPs, and with the public through the use of “phone lines and the internet.” Despite efforts by several reporters to get clarification on whether the NDP would support or reject the budget, neither Horwath nor fellow MPP Michael Prue indicated how they will vote.

But both Horwath and Hudak did agree on this: if the budget vote forces an election, it’s all Dalton McGuinty’s fault.