Opposition reacts to throne speech

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When the government prorogued Parliament last week there were hints they were going to give Ontarians a break on hydro bills. It’s been a sore point for voters, driven home recently when the Liberals lost a byelection in Scarborough, even though during the lead-up to that byelection PC leader Patrick Brown had to apologize and retract a letter that said he would scrap the new sex ed curriculum. According to reaction at Queen’s Park, today’s announcement won’t bring the uptick in popularity the Liberals had been hoping for.

The hydro tax cut was expected, the extra childcare spaces less so, but after Elizabeth Dowdeswell’s speech from the throne opposition believes this won’t help the Liberals popularity.

“It’s all just a shell game, it’s all just smoke and mirrors. I’m not impressed at all.” Warren Smokey Thomas, OPSEU.

“The government policy has created a situation where hydro bills are growing at 8% a year. What are they going to do next year.” Christine Van Geyn, Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Critics say the government should get out of the 20-year contracts with private wind and solar companies, in order to solve the problem of skyrocketing electricity costs. They say removing the provincial 8% tax does nothing.

“At the same time, the rebate is coming into effect, the cap and trade is coming in and your home heating will go up.” Van Geyn.

It was Andrea Horwath’s provincial NDP that first proposed taking HST off hydro bills, but the 8% reduction announced today has not appeased opponents.

“People are going to have to wait four more months. That raises a lot of questions, about how long the rebate will last and how exactly it will work.” Andrea Horwath.

Political scientist Nelson Wiseman was surprised the Liberals expect to balance the budget.

“The problem is they’ve been in power so long. People don’t respond. Harper finally balanced the budget after 6-7 years of running deficits. What did it do for him last year?”

Less clear, were the 100 000 new childcare spaces or how those will roll out, we heard it would be between $600 and $750 million but it’s unclear whether that includes capital and operating costs. Details will be revealed in coming days, the Finance Minister said.

Will these measures help the Liberals? The tests will be two more byelections coming up, including Tim Hudak’s riding of Niagara West Glanbrook, he’s held it for the Conservatives since 1995.