Ontario Alternative Budget

Over on our blog, Behind the Numbers, CCPA Research Associates are sharing their analyses of the Ontario budget:

• Hugh Mackenzie shares his devastating critique of the budget, suggesting that Premier Dalton McGuinty’s ninth Ontario budget completes the job of cutting government down to size—a job started by the Mike Harris Conservatives in the 1990s. Read the full post: Completing the job started by Mike Harris. 
• Erin Weir shares his analysis of the budget in the blog post, Drummond Commission report: countering cutbacks in Ontario. He suggests that the most striking feature of the budget might be how close it comes to last month’s Drummond report. Read more here.

The Ontario government tabled its budget today, putting deficit reduction ahead of jobs. The budget also penalizes social assistance recipients and threatens to burden postsecondary students with tuition fee hikes. For full details, see Off target:
Ontario budget misses the point on economic recovery, by CCPA research associate Hugh Mackenzie.

The CCPA Ontario office released its prescription for this year's provincial budget, calling on the Ontario government to make job creation -- not deficit reduction -- a top priority. It shows how hard hit Ontario has been by the global recession. Ontario accounted for 59% of the nation's permanent job losses last year. By focusing on a strong job creation plan, the Ontario government can get Ontarians working again, which is good for the economy and will be important to the province's future deficit reduction efforts.

The full report, Steering Ontario Out of Recession by CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie, is available here.

A new Ontario Alternative Budget Technical Paper, Close Encounters of the Thirties Kind, by social policy expert John Stapleton, provides a blow-by-blow account of the similarities between Ontario circa 1930s and today. Stapleton finds 11 similarities between the Great Depression and the Crash of 2008 and calls on senior governments to take the lessons of the 1930s and act swiftly to minimize Ontario’s current recession. Click here to read more.