Political messages that flip-flopped. Controversial policies announced, modified and removed at a mere snap of the fingers
Seventy-two hours – 4,320 minutes – three days. Doesn’t sound like an enormous stretch of time. In most cases, it’s not. Yet what Ontario experienced from Friday, April 16, to Sunday, April 18, could easily be described as an insane roller-coaster ride for the ages. Wild highs and lows. Political messages that flip-flopped and flop-flipped. Controversial…
He should honour his 2018 promise and cut the provincial gas excise tax
Going for a drive is one of the few things families can do to get out of the house, but now they’re being hit with gas prices that have spiked to their highest point in two years. Filling up a minivan now costs $95. But it shouldn’t cost that much because Premier Doug Ford promised…
Ford has changed his tune about political welfare now that he’s Ontario’s premier
Ontario Premier Doug Ford use to stick up for taxpayers against political parties that were trying to plunder more of our money. But now Ford seems eager to let political parties stick their hands further into taxpayers’ pockets. Ford rightly railed against political welfare when he was vying for the Progressive Conservative leadership in 2018.…
Ford has changed his tune about political welfare now that he’s Ontario’s premier
Ontario Premier Doug Ford use to stick up for taxpayers against political parties that were trying to plunder more of our money. But now Ford seems eager to let political parties stick their hands further into taxpayers’ pockets. Ford rightly railed against political welfare when he was vying for the Progressive Conservative leadership in 2018.…
Governments need to start planning for the recovery and developing plans to put their finances in order
By Steve Lafleur and Jake Fuss The Fraser Institute As expected, every government budget in Canada this year has been covered in red ink. The pandemic has squeezed tax revenue while governments have boosted spending to combat the public health crisis and deep recession. But after a year of social distancing and with the rollout…
Ford government acting like an ostrich with its head firmly buried in the sand
As Ontario’s finance minister rose in the legislature to present the government’s 2021 budget, it became painfully clear that the Ford government is acting like an ostrich with its head firmly buried in the sand. When the Ford government released its first pandemic budget in November of 2020, then-finance minister Rod Phillips promised that a…
A 10% pay cut for all sunshine listers would save beleaguered taxpayers more than $2.5B
While most Ontarians were barely getting by during lockdowns, the bill for Ontario top bureaucrats ballooned in 2020. There are still 800,000 Ontarians looking for a job. So, it must be jarring for them to see Ontario’s sunshine list, which discloses the municipal and provincial government employees making more than $100,000 per year, increased by…
The lingering financial fallout from the pandemic will cost our students for the rest of their lives
The pandemic has been hard on students of all ages. As many parents can attest, their children have missed the social interaction at school and have struggled to focus during online learning. Post-secondary students have missed out on important and exciting life experiences, too. But even after in-class and on-campus learning has resumed to near…
The government must craft a credible short-term plan to eliminate the budget deficit
By Steve Lafleur and Jake Fuss The Fraser Institute The Ford government released Ontario’s 2020/21 third quarter fiscal update last week. As expected, the numbers were ugly. The Department of Finance now anticipates a $38.5 billion budget deficit for this fiscal year. Moreover, the Financial Accountability Officer projects that while the deficit will decrease substantially…
Deficits might seem like an abstract problem for the future but in Ontario this simply isn’t the case
By Steve Lafleur and Jake Fuss The Fraser Institute New Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy inherits a difficult job from Rod Phillips. The province’s fiscal challenges long predate the pandemic. The province has mostly run uninterrupted budget deficits since 2008-09. The governments of both Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne sketched out long paths to budget…
Seventy-two hours – 4,320 minutes – three days. Doesn’t sound like an enormous stretch of time. In most cases, it’s not. Yet what Ontario experienced from Friday, April 16, to Sunday, April 18, could easily be described as an insane roller-coaster ride for the ages. Wild highs and lows. Political messages that flip-flopped and flop-flipped. Controversial…
