Ontario budget rehash includes call for electrified express rail in York Region, GTA

July 15, 2014
Yorkregion.com
By Sean Pearce

Meet the new budget. Same as the old budget.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa tabled the 2014 budget in the provincial legislature Monday afternoon - or, rather, he re-tabled it.

The $130.4-billion fiscal blueprint laid out by Sousa was essentially identical to the plan he put forward May 1, which triggered the spring election that returned Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne to power as the head of a majority government.

Of particular importance to York Region is the province’s direction to Metrolinx that it work toward regional express rail to provide fast, efficient and electrified all-day, two-way service on all of its corridors running at intervals as frequent as 15 minutes.

“We committed to re-introducing this budget if elected,” Sousa said. “We are following through on that commitment today.”

Given that, the budget speech comprised several familiar announcements, including pledges to continue the rollout of full-day kindergarten, create a 10-year, $2.5-billion jobs and prosperity fund and establish an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan intended to supplement Canada Pension Plan payments for the more than three million Ontarians without a workplace pension plan. The budget also maintains the government’s commitment to invest $130 billion in infrastructure over the next decade, including $29 billion for transit and transportation, of which $15 billion is allotted for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, with the remainder earmarked for other parts of the province.

“Governments of all political stripes failed to make the necessary investments to unclog our highways...Roads in our cities and towns are congested, and while over the last 10 years we have made major investments to improve public transit, roads, highways and bridges, there is still more to do,” Sousa said. “We need to position our province for the future.”

Also retained in the budget is the projection that the province’s deficit will increase from $11.3 billion for 2013-14 to $12.5 billion for this fiscal year, in spite of the fact credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently revised Ontario’s outlook from stable to negative. Sousa remains confident the books will be balanced by the 2017-18 target.

Interim Progressive Conservative leader Jim Wilson gave the recycled budget thumbs down and described it as failing Ontario. The Liberals presented their campaign budget even as further job losses and a credit downgrade loom, he said, adding the latter scenario will mean billions more dollars going to service the debt rather than funding services people rely on.

“This budget is a political document, not a practical plan for our province,” he said in a statement. “We can’t support a budget that will hurt people across Ontario.”