TORONTO – Premier Kathleen Wynne says the Progressive Conservatives’ suggestion that $12 billion could be cut from Ontario’s budget is ridiculous.
The Tories’ newly unveiled election platform plans for $6 billion in savings from cancelling Ontario’s cap-and-trade program and another $6 billion that they say could be found from a value-for-money audit.
Those savings, particularly the audit, are what Liberal attacks have been focusing on since the platform’s release, rather than specific policy planks such as tax cuts for the middle class, a refund for childcare expenses and a further 12 per cent cut to hydro bills.
Speaking to The Canadian Press from China, where she is on a trade mission, Wynne says in her experience, whenever Conservatives talk about finding efficiencies, that means cuts to services.
Wynne’s Liberal government has touted its own form of a value-for-money audit _ a program spending review _ as one of the reasons it was able to eliminate the deficit, but the premier says the fact that has already been done makes the suggestion that billions more could be cut “even more ridiculous.”
PC Leader Patrick Brown says perhaps the Liberals didn’t expect him to release the platform this weekend, more than six months before the election, so they are struggling to find something in it to attack.