Liberal Throne Speech whines about Budget and glosses over big-ticket promises, while begging unions to keep quiet

(Queen’s Park) — Dalton McGuinty’s first Throne Speech is a laundry list of excuses, symbols and time-buying tactics, not an agenda for action, says Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop.

“In the election, Dalton McGuinty made over 200 promises that he said would bring change to Ontario,” said Dunlop. “He has delivered one change – he has changed his tune from what he promised just six weeks ago.”

During the election, Dalton McGuinty signed a pledge to not run deficits. He has broken that pledge. “The Liberals can balance the budget – they could even have a surplus – they just don’t want to,” said Dunlop. “Ontarians deserve better than the Liberals’ cavalier decision to take a five-month holiday from fiscal responsibility.”

The Liberals say in their Throne Speech that “this is not exactly the job your new government applied for”. They do not even have any plans to reduce the deficit by the $2 billion they allowed for in the financial plan they released with their election platform.

Dunlop predicts that the Liberals will keep the deficit high to provide political cover for breaking more promises. “The Liberals knew – or were warned – that many of their promises were underestimated in terms of cost, or simply unrealistic,” he said. “So far, the McGuinty Liberals have broken their promises to keep the budget balanced, maintain the hydro rate cap until 2006, and stop construction of 6,600 houses on the Oak Ridges Moraine.”

Other promises likely to be broken are: capping the class size in JK- Grade 3, hiring 8,000 nurses, and closing coal-fired power plants by 2007. The speech glossed over these big-ticket promises, with the education and health promises briefly mentioned in their respective sections, and the coal plant commitment buried in a rehashing of various platform commitments. Prominent in the speech, however, is a naked plea to the health, education and public sectors to “temper their requests for more”.

“Although the Liberals will be doing very little, they will want voters to think they are doing a lot,” said Dunlop. “That’s why they will try to implement a number of small or symbolic initiatives, in hopes of appearing pro-active, while distracting the public from breaking their larger promises.” Examples from the speech include: prizes for teachers, a francophone education task force, and a provincial health council (this will be in addition to the federal health council to which the Liberals just agreed).

Dunlop observed that the purpose of the Liberals’ Budget consultation exercise mentioned in the Throne Speech is to provide another excuse for doing nothing while buying time. “We just had a consultation – the election – during which the Liberals made over 200 promises,” he said. “Asking people to tell you how to balance the Budget and keep your promises is not leadership. All this exercise will do is give interest groups a field day, signalling to them that soon it will be open season on taxpayers’ pockets again. And with taxes going up January 1st, who’s to argue with them?”

Contacts:
Garfield Dunlop
(705) 327-4500 (cell)