FERGUS – The Dalton McGuinty Liberals have an addiction to debt that threatens Ontario’s financial future, according to Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.
He is warning that at a time when U.S. debt is causing political and economic turmoil, he believes attention will soon turn to Ontario’s ballooning debt – one that now stands at over $236 billion.
“Our party maintains that they’re on track to double the provincial debt by next year,” said Arnott of the Liberal government since its election in 2003. “It’s a shameful record, because we know the government deals in real money – our tax dollars.”
This year the provincial government is projecting a deficit of at least $16.3-billion.That translates to $1.86 million an hour, every hour of every day, which amounts to more than $31,000 a minute or about $516 a second.
Arnott compared the provincial government’s borrowing habits to those of a household.
“Suppose you borrow $100,000 with no plan to pay it down. Times are good, so, over an eight-year period, you borrow another $100,000 without paying down a nickel of your debt,” he said. “But then you hit hard times. So you stick your head in the sand and keep spending over and above what you can afford. At some point, you can expect your banker to give you a call.”
Unless Ontario gets its financial house in order, Arnott believes, that call is coming soon.
In his 21 years in the legislature, Arnott has often raised alarm bells on the provincial debt.
It was the focus of his maiden speech in the legislature as an MPP in 1990, and the subject of two separate motions he introduced in 1997 and 2003. The Liberals voted down his 2003 resolution calling for a debt repayment plan, he believes, because they knew they had big plans to spend.
“The Liberal debt problem is one thing, but it’s coincided with billions in new Liberal taxes and fees,” he said. “If they’re re-elected this fall, they’ll choose to increase taxes again. They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again.”
He said Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak is committed to eliminating Ontario’s deficit and returning to a balanced budget by 2017-18.
Hudak has said that if elected, each year he would look to find savings of two cents on every dollar the government spends outside of health and education. Health and education spending would increase, guaranteeing those services.
