Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Ontario Provincial Budget

Dear Editor,
Do you remember when Ontario was a "rich" Province? We had no debt, we could balance our budgets, maintain a first-rate health care system and give more than our share to the rest of Canada. Then came a series of "progressive governments". Do you remember the outrage when Bob Rae planned to overspend his way through his mandate by ten Billion dollars each year? He followed up on his plan and was booted out of office.
Too little, too late. By 1995 we had a multi-billion dollar deficit, which amounted to several thousand dollars per family in Ontario. We know how difficult it is to recover from a bad debt. The debt kept escalating, in spite of a relatively good economy over the years and unexpected surplus revenues from corporate taxes.
The current Liberal government, who was "outraged" at the last government unexpected deficit, today announced that they have the intention of borrowing even more, so that our debt will grow to $132 Billion by the next election! This is about $25,000 per family, before we even account for the federal debt!
The amount that Bob Rae overspent, each year in the early 90's, is now, ten years later, exactly the amount we pay in interest to some Japanese or Swiss bank. Who said that our progressive leaders are not supporting big business? These interest payments are now as much as one third of the Province's total health care bill, which in itself is over 40% of the total budget.
In the meantime, as residents of rich Ontario, we cope by... paying a health surtax and paying for more services out of our own pockets.
Do our provincial leaders even see the problem? No. Not one of the three would have balanced the budget! Are they going to wake up when our interest payments are greater than the healthcare cost?
Borrowing has become a cancer, while health care reform is still on hold. Is this progress?

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