Sousa set to balance budget with no tax hikes
Finance Minister Charles Sousa will finally eliminate Ontario’s deficit in Thursday’s budget.

thestar.com
By ROBERT BENZIE and ROB FERGUSON
April 26, 2017

Finance Minister Charles Sousa is tabling a balanced budget with no tax hikes for Ontarians in hopes of tilting the scales for Premier Kathleen Wynne’s re-election next spring.

On the eve of Thursday’s financial blueprint, Wynne said eliminating the annual deficit means voters can expect more help from Queen’s Park in their daily lives.

“We now, with a balanced budget, have a responsibility to make sure we tackle the needs people are confronting in this globally uncertain economy,” the premier told the legislature Wednesday.

Her government has already promised to reduce electricity prices an average of 17 per cent starting in June, on top of the 8-per-cent rebate of the provincial HST on hydro bills that took effect in January.

That 25 per cent total, which she has been touting since it was unveiled last month, is part of a charm offensive to prove the Liberals understand that people are feeling pinched.

With an election on June 7, 2018, Wynne has been languishing in public-opinion polls behind Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

That’s why last week the premier announced a 16-point plan to make housing more affordable in south Ontario - with a 15-per-cent foreign buyers tax to cool down the real estate market, and new rent controls limiting hikes to inflation on all buildings.

In the first balanced budget in the province since 2008, Sousa is promising new funding for child care, health care, affordable housing and respite care, among other measures.

However, Liberal sources stressed that a full-scale NDP-style pharmacare plan to help cover the costs of 125 commonly prescribed drugs is far more expensive than the New Democrats’ estimate of $475 million annually.

Still, Sousa boasted that the government has stanched the flow of red ink for the foreseeable future, crediting Ontario’s growing economy.

“We’re balancing the books tomorrow. We’re balancing the books next year. We’re balancing the books the year after that, and we’re investing in the people of Ontario,” he said.

But Brown said the Liberal hype around the budget is more about the fact Ontario voters will be heading to the polls in just over 13 months.

“It certainly smells like a lot of electioneering,” the PC leader told reporters, casting doubt on Sousa’s promise to end annual deficits.

“They’re trying to prop up an artificial balance.”

Deputy NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said the Wynne administration appears to be playing catch-up given the flurry of pre-budget announcements about balancing the books, child care and other issues.

“The government’s had 14 years to make change, they’ve had 14 years to address the problems we’ve seen in this province and they’re now scrambling last minute to save their own political skin,” said Singh.