Ontario aiming for balanced budget

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(Updated)
Ontario’s still dealing with a big deficit so careful spending is a must. Sean Leathong has details on the overall spending plan.

There aren’t any cuts, and there aren’t any taxes, but still the government is planning to balance the books by 2017-2018…but the way they are going about it is a bit of a gamble.

The budget comes down to a simple philosophy. “We are holding the line on spending” says Finance Minister Charles Sousa. The $131.9 billion spending plan introduced today pledges to balance the books through a combination of targeted savings, through mostly minor program cuts, and a dependence on steady economic growth.

The partial sale of Hydro One and the recent sale of GM stock will be used to pay for the previous transit commitments of $130 billion over the next 10 years. And the closest thing to a tax, is a 3 cents a litre beer tax, which will add $100 million to the bottom line.

Sousa says Ontario’s economy is expected to grow by 2.7 per cent this year, but he’s not relying solely on that to eliminate the deficit, saying it’s about controlling spending.

The province is forecasting that the deficit will drop to $8.5 billion in 2015-16, falling further to $4.8 billion in 2016-17 before returning to balance the following year.

“This is a shell game that’s being played” says PC Finance Critic Vic Fedeli “and it’s time this government stops using their credit card, and starts using their debit card.”