Ontario Budget

I can't remember the last time that both the federal budget and the Ontario Provincial budget were released within a few days of each other.  It was interesting to compare the two budgets both in terms of substance and perhaps more importantly in terms of how the opposition parties reacted to each of them.

The Ontario budget was, in many ways, diametrically opposite to the federal budget. While both governments are prepared to sell off major assets to finance their plans (see blog of April 21/14 for comments on the selling off of Ontario Hydro), the Liberals in Ontario appear to be far less concerned about the level of provincial debt. It is difficult to know whether or not the ruling party are being too optimistic about the ability of the provincial economy to absorb the consequences of a budget in which the third largest expense after Health and Education is the management of the provincial debt. On the other hand, if their calculations are correct and a massive investment in infrastructure will have the desired effect it in terms of stimulating the economy, the debt may be manageable. Unfortunately much like the federal budget, those promised infrastructure investments are spread out over the life of the next two elections.

It is too early to tell whether or not the government, because there are three more years before the next provincial election, missed out on the opportunity to increase taxes or to set up other perhaps unpopular income generating measures early in their term to deal with the debt load. They had no need to be gentle with the electorate nor did they need to cater to the opposition parties' whims. If there were sharp cuts to be made in service delivery - now was the time to do it. I am, of course, slightly delighted that they see no need to increase taxes and very delighted that there will be no dramatically cut services. I can only hope that both the government's economic prognosticating ability and money management skills are superior to other governments in the past.

Within minutes of the federal budget being presented in Ottawa, representatives from both the Federal Liberal party and the New Democratic Party were predictably in front of the microphones condemning the budget as presented in the House. Their comments were frequently indistinguishable from each other. Both parties argued  that the budget did nothing for the "middle class" or job creation and the budget was only balanced because of a reduction in the size of the contingency fund. Suggestions of what they would have done different were unfortunately missing from their comments. In contrast, within a few hours after the budget was tabled in the Ontario Provincial Legislature, I watched a very reasonable debate on TVO with representatives from the Conservatives, N.D.P. and the Green Party. It may be because the provincial election is three years in the future that there is less need to keep their cards to their vests (e.g. so the other parties don't steal their ideas); it could have been for the Conservative party that because they are going through the process of finding a new leader, the representative was free to speak his mind or because they actually had some ides that were worth sharing. For whatever reason it was a pleasure to see politicians critique the budget and to at least some of the time have an alternative proposal. To be clear - the three parties soundly condemned the budget as presented in the Legislature. They just did it in a slightly more reasonable and helpful fashion.

Not much of an improvement - but I will take anything approaching civility that I can. Generally speaking, our politicians are sorely lacking skills in that department.