Liberals set to table Ontario budget Thursday
Posted May 2, 2013 8:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario Liberals have promised no new tax increases and a fiscal plan the NDP should support when the budget is tabled on Thursday afternoon.
The minority government needs the NDP on its side for the budget to pass — and to avoid an election — since the Progressive Conservatives (PC) plan to vote against it on sight.
“The official Opposition should read this budget, and by reading this budget they’ll come to recognize that we have a lot of shared issues and they should support it,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa said on Wednesday.
“The NDP have made some requests. We’ve met all those requests and much more.”
Earlier this week, Sousa revealed the budget will move to reduce auto insurance premiums by 15 per cent on average, a concession to the NDP’s motion for an across-the-board cut.
And according to The Canadian Press, the budget addresses other NDP demands, like reducing the number of large companies exempt from the employer health tax.
Sousa also plans to put off tax breaks for big businesses until 2018 — a delay of three years — and spend $295 million to target youth unemployment, $185 million to decrease homecare wait times and $100 million to fix roads in rural and northern communities.
PC Leader Tim Hudak said he can’t support a government that won’t apologize for spending at least $585 million of taxpayers’ money to cancel two GTA gas plants.
“Ontarians … need a chance to express through their elected representatives if they still have confidence in this government,” he said in a statement.
“And that includes the NDP — who look the other way if enough budget money is thrown at them — and then condemn the Liberals for the gas plants scandal in their next breath.”
Sousa will table the budget at 4 p.m.
