Ontario Alternative Budget
TORONTO--The 2004-05 Ontario Alternative Budget advocates new investments of $14.7 billion over four years to address the serious decline in the state of Ontario's public services.
"The public services we built over generations are at a point of real danger," states economist Hugh Mackenzie, co-chair of the OAB working group, "The basics we used to take for granted -- clean water, abundant energy -- have been found wanting."
TORONTO--The McGuinty Liberals campaigned on promises to reinvest in public services, balance the budget, and to not raise taxes. With the Liberals' first provincial budget set to be released on Tuesday, the question is no longer how it will deliver on their promises but in what manner and to what extent it will fall short.
TORONTO--The first budget of the government elected to repair damage created by eight years of Harris/Eves cuts falls far short of what is needed to adequately respond to Ontario's public service crisis.
According to an analysis of the 2004 Ontario budget from the Ontario Alternative Budget Working Group, rather than rebuild Ontario's revenue system to support real public services renewal, the Liberals chose to impose a surtax on middle income earners in the form of an OHIP premium--the single most regressive change in the personal income tax system they could made.