York Region MPPs trade blows over Ontario provincial budget

YorkRegion.com
July 16, 2014
By Sean Pearce

The re-introduced 2014 provincial budget offers plenty of good news for York Region, Ontario’s new transportation minister says.

But a local Progressive Conservative MPP worries Premier Kathleen Wynne’s newly elected majority government is leading the province down a road to ruin.

Liberal Transportation Minister and Vaughan MPP Steven Del Duca described the fiscal plan re-tabled by Finance Minister Charles Sousa Monday as being bold and ambitious, with investments earmarked for health care, education and the establishment of an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan intended to supplement Canada Pension Plan payments for the more than three million Ontarians lacking a workplace retirement plan.

While the government says those kinds of initiatives will provide widespread positives across Ontario, Del Duca said York residents will also benefit from the $15 billion allotted for Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area transportation infrastructure and transit needs over the next decade, with another $14 billion set aside for regions outside the GTHA, which is part of a larger, 10-year, $130-billion commitment to public infrastructure.

Between the Spadina subway extension into York and the VivaNext bus rapidways under construction on Davis Drive in Newmarket and along Hwy. 7 through Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan, the region has been the recipient of significant transit investments, Del Duca said.

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 - has the power to be more transformative still, he added.

There has been a significant amount of progress made already, Del Duca said, noting the government also wants to move on things such as regional express rail on lines in York Region and beyond because it’s very popular and there’s a growing demand.

All-day, two-way express train service won’t get rolling overnight, he continued, but will take up to 10 years of work alongside municipalities and other important partners.

There’s no word on the Yonge Street subway extension into Richmond Hill, but Del Duca said individual projects can’t be looked at in absence of the much larger plan.

In terms of generating the funds needed to realize such transit visions, Del Duca said the budget lays out a plan to do so through the re-allocation of gas taxes, along with other revenue-raising mechanisms, such as barring large corporations from claiming the small business tax deduction, phasing in a four-cent-per-litre tax on aviation fuel over four years and setting aside revenue from the sale of certain, as-of-yet unspecified assets, through the proposed Trillium Trust, among several others.

Progressive Conservative York-Simcoe MPP Julia Munro isn’t so optimistic about the budget’s various pledges.

Whether it’s $29 billion for public transit and transportation infrastructure or $700 million for hospitals, too many of the plans seem to have the same, vague 10-year timeframe attached to them, with few specifics, she said.

The one priority that is laid out more precisely, the allocation of about $800 million over three years for developmental services for children and adults, raises its own concerns, as the recommendations from a select committee tasked with examining the area have yet to be made public, she added.

“There’s a certain frustration in the community about that,” Munro said. “We’ve got the money, but how is it going to be spent?”

Munro also has concerns with the fact the government proposes $5.7 billion in new spending, the lack of specifics surrounding the province’s pension plan and the fact the Dominion Bond Rating Service has questioned Ontario’s commitment to getting its fiscal house in order, just weeks after Moody’s Investors Service revised its outlook from stable to negative.

Munro shares that skepticism.

“OK, our party did not make government, but the problems and challenges have not gone away,” she said. “We did see some effort on the deficit, but now it’s back to $12.5 billion, so there doesn’t seem to be the kind of discipline you’re looking for so you can feel confident they have a plan to hit their target of 2017-18.”

As it stands, servicing the debt is the province’s third largest expense, she added.

Del Duca rejects the notion the government isn’t taking the deficit and debt seriously.

Last year’s deficit, at $11.3 billion, came in $400 million less than projected, he said, adding newly appointed Treasury Board president Deb Matthews has been tasked to ensure the province moves from red to black.

“We do have an aggressive plan to get the province’s books back to balance,” he said.

“The premier has been clear that while we are fiscally responsible, we will continue to make the kinds of investments we need to grow our economy.”

That includes investments in public transit and crucial transportation infrastructure, Del Duca continued, noting such actions will be necessary to ensure the efficient movement of people and commercial goods.