ON ISSUE #26 - 4.8 % increase in Provincial program spending for 2017/18

Amazing what single digit approval ratings will do for a budget .... I wonder whether "balanced OPERATING budget" will still be balanced when it is 2018 and the auditor general reports.... and where that money will come from.



https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blog...ding-more-debt
Provincial program spending for 2017/18 is expected to increase by 4.8 per cent compared to the previous year. That’s a far faster rate of annual spending growth than has prevailed in the last three years (2.2 per cent, on average).

In fact, Ontario’s debt is expected to rise by a total of approximately $34 billion over the next three years.

In 2017/18, interest on Ontario’s debt is expected to cost taxpayers a staggering $11.6 billion, or approximately $1 billion per month. The more money Ontarians must pay to service growing debt, the more tax dollars are not being spent on health care, education, tax relief and other important priorities

Contrary to the political spin, Ontario’s balanced operating budget is not the most important story in today’s budget. Far more important are the province’s decisions to ramp up spending and add to the province’s debt load in the years ahead.

It is all smoke and mirrors and there are many dumb enough to think is true

Seems like only the ideologues are buying their cow poop

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-co...-do-the-voters
And it’s no wonder. The Ontario Liberals have spent money like the proverbial drunken sailor for a decade, ramping up the province’s debt to $312 billion (it was $132 billion when they took office in 2003). Then again, sailors eventually run out of money and report back to their post. Ontario just keeps borrowing, and interest payments are already $1 billion a month — the third-largest single expense. Balancing the budget is clearly how the Liberals are hoping to sell voters on their fitness to manage an economy as large as Ontario’s.

It’s not always irresponsible to borrow to build. But it’s a little rich for the Liberals to claim to have balanced the books while still adding tens of billions to the province’s debt tab.

Pity it’s all an illusion. The books aren’t balanced, they’re just reimagined. Short-term or even one-time cash payouts from asset sales are being counted as revenue. The province has also decided to only count debt accrued through operational shortfalls as real debt; money borrowed to build infrastructure apparently doesn’t count, even though it’ll still be added to Ontario’s bottom line and will result in mounting interest payments. It’s not always irresponsible to borrow to build. But it’s a little rich for the Liberals to claim to have balanced the books while still adding tens of billions to the province’s debt tab.

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