Sousa discounts statement criticism

(Updated) Ontario’s finance minister Charles Sousa is defending this year’s fall economic statement, which shows the governing Liberals are prepared to miss short-term budget targets, in order to protect investments in jobs and growth. It’s a plan that the opposition says will lead the province into more economic trouble.

The economic statement contains some new investment plans for infrastructure and job growth, but it’s all being overshadowed by the budget deficit issue.

Sousa says while the government is on track with plans to slash Ontario’s $11.7 billion dollar deficit within four years, it’s not willing to cut important social programs to reach short-term targets along the way. This year’s economic statement also says the Liberal government is investing more than $35 billion dollars in infrastructure over the next three years.

He also announced plans to make it easier for large pension funds to invest in public infrastructure projects, and bring in tax changes to benefit low and moderate income investors.

PC leader Tim Hudak’s criticism focused on how the party plans to address the budget deficit.

“You can’t spend your way out of deficit, and you can’t tax-rate a prosperity. If that worked we’d already be there by now because that’s all we’ve seen in the last five years. The Liberal policy has put us deep in debt they’ve cost a lot of jobs, and they’re driving up hydro bills and I don’t see why six more months of the exact same policy is going to change anything.”

Sousa’s response: “We can’t do drastic across the board cuts. Listen, we know what the opposition are saying and frankly Tim Hudak doesn’t get it. Achieving a zero deficit is not a victory if you have zero growth in jobs.”

He also called on the federal government again to increase benefits under the Canada Pension Plan, threatening that Ontario will set up its own plan if Ottawa doesn’t act.