Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): I rise in the Legislature today to remind the McGuinty Liberals yet again of a very important promise they made during the recent election campaign. You might recognize it as promise number 53, or you may have seen it on page 23 of section 2 of your Liberal plan, entitled Growing Strong Communities. Check under the heading "Getting Tough on Crime." That's where you and leader Dalton McGuinty made the following promise: "We will put 1,000 more cops on the street."

This promise is of particular significance right now, because representatives and members of the Police Association of Ontario will be in the building later today. I'm sure they'd like the hear what the Liberals have to say about it, if and when this promise will be honoured. In fact, the PAO is holding an informal reception in the legislative dining room this evening between 5 o'clock and 9 o'clock.

When we were in office, we delivered on our promise to get 1,000 more police officers working in communities across this province. During the recent election campaign, Ernie Eves promised funding for at least another 1,000 front-line police officers. Just to be clear, that's in addition to the first 1,000 I've already mentioned. Given our track record on community safety, you can bet we would have delivered again. We would have kept our promise.

While I look forward to an announcement of money for more police officers in the upcoming budget, I'm not holding my breath. After all, Dalton McGuinty and his government, just like their Liberal cousins in Ottawa, are hard on your pocketbook but soft on crime.