Elections

The Lying Liberals are Slandering the Conservatives. Here’s the Truth!

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Creating Jobs while Rightsizing the Public Service 

LIES ARE LIES – It’s been said by Liberals that we will be firing a hundred thousand people and this is not true.

– It has been said by Liberals that we will get rid of nurses and doctors and this is not true.
FACTS ARE FACTS – The public service has grown by 300,000 positions since the Liberals came to power, jobs that we have to borrow money to pay for.

– About 50,000 public sector workers retire or quit each year. All we need to do is hire one person for every two who leave so we can reduce 100,000 positions in four years.

– We’re not going to cut anything in public safety.

– We’re going to hire more nurses and more doctors and invest $2 Billion more into healthcare than the Liberals will.

– In fact, we will hire more front-line workers to improve services we all rely on.

– We will treat taxpayers and tax dollars with respect.
THE BOTTOM LINE – A PC government will hire more doctors and nurses.

– We will invest in education, improving math and science programs, keep all-day kindergarten and provide more assistance for students with special needs.

– We will replace one public servant for every two who retire and focus this hiring on front-line services.

– Jobs will be created by attracting businesses through lower taxes, affordable hydro, and a balanced budget.

– This is all good for your pocketbook too!

Please share this page with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s all work with Matt for a better Ontario.

Together we can bring change Ontario. 

Wynne Has the Audacity To Criticize The Conservatives Math! Hilarious!

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CHRISTINA BLIZZARD - BLIZZARD: Liberals have no business lecturing anyone on math

As Someone who was Recently Unable to Accurately Count Backwards from 5, she has Nerve to Criticize Others.

CHRISTINA BLIZZARD | QMI AGENCY

http://bcove.me/fdie4hkg

TORONTO — Wonky math myths were on everyone’s lips last week, as the provincial election campaign kept up its long march across the province.

While critics were busy splitting hairs over Tim Hudak’s bad campaign math, they seem to have forgotten how excruciatingly bad with numbers the Liberals have been over the past 10 years.

On Thursday, we learned the Liberals are planning a secret bailout of a real estate deal in downtown Toronto.

The MaRS building was supposed to be a centre for innovation and research.
In 2007, the Liberals gave the project a $234 million loan, then in 2011, plowed in an additional $71 million for Phase 2.

It all went bad. The building is only 30% occupied and the government is stepping in to stop it from going bankrupt.

The building was supposed to spur the “knowledge economy.”

I well remember former Premier Dalton McGuinty holding a news conference there about seven years ago and holding up his BlackBerry built in Waterloo — to demonstrate what a wonderfully innovative province this is.

That worked out well, didn’t it?

Those reporters on the cutting edge of technology scrambled to report it on their smartphones.

It’s almost like the Liberals are the kiss of death to business.

They have the reverse Midas touch. Whatever they touch turns to crap.

“When did government get in the mortgage business?” asks Nipissing Tory Vic Fedeli.

He thinks the $317 million is just the tip of the iceberg.

“One thing for sure, this isn’t the full set of numbers, Fedeli said. “It could be the bulk of them. It could just be the tip of them.”

He wonders what side deals there are that we don’t know about.

He has every right to ask that question. This is the same party that insisted it would cost a mere $40 million to scrap the Mississauga gas plant. Turns out it cost $1.1 billion to move it and the Oakville plant.

Bad math? Stupidity? Or just incompetence? You decide.

The Liberals have been highly critical of Hudak’s job creation numbers, but notably silent on their own flawed and false job numbers.

MORE BATTLEGROUND ONTARIO:

Their Green Energy Act (GEA) was a masterpiece of doublespeak.

In a column in the March 1, 2009 Toronto Sun, the Energy Minister George Smitherman said the GEA will, “shape not only the way we do business in Ontario, but the way we think about energy and consumption.”

He got that right. Just not perhaps the way he expected.

Electricity costs skyrocketed and most of our manufacturing sector moved to the U.S.

“The proposed GEA has the potential to deliver 50,000 new jobs to Ontario in the manufacturing, assembly, retrofit and architectural sectors, just to start,” he said.

How many were actually produced?

In a 2011 report, then provincial auditor-general Jim McCarter said most of the these jobs were in construction and would last no more than three years.

McCarter also said that for every job created by the GEA, two to four are lost in manufacturing because of higher electricity costs.

Then there was the sell-off of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission that operated train service in Northern Ontario. In his 2012 budget, then-finance minister Dwight Duncan announced the government would sell off ONTC — shutting down a Northern Ontario train lifeline.

At the time, the government said it would save nearly $266 million over three years.

Turns out we got railroaded.

In her report last year, provincial Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said not only will it not save money — it’s going to cost us as much as $820 million. It seems the Liberals hadn’t factored in hefty severance payments to employees.

The Ornge air ambulance scandal is well documented. Millions of dollars were squandered when a rogue CEO was given carte blanche to create a web of companies out of what had formerly been a public company.

But the wasted money isn’t the real scandal.

On Friday, we learned more troubling details when Ornge was charged with 17 counts under the federal labour code as a result of deadly crash last year that killed two pilots and two paramedics.

Among other things, the charges allege Ornge allowed the pilots to fly the chopper “without adequate training in the operation of that specific aircraft.”

And you’re still worried about Hudak’s math?

I think the Liberals are long overdue a class in arithmetic.

Apparently, they still can’t add. They haven’t been able to balance the books once — even though they signed a pledge saying they’d do so. We’re now looking at a staggering $300-billion debt.

Libs need lessons in history and ethics.

Then they can lecture the Tories on math.

http://bcove.me/o6e63wgp

An Impassioned Plea from a Citizen of Rural Ontario, to Tim Hudak!

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(GOOD READING FOR ANYONE PLANNING ON VOTING)

Paul Kuster — June 1, 2014

I’ve decided that given the priviledge to offer my opinions through the miracle of the internet and blog Quixotes last Stand, I feel I can offer up some friendly advice to the Conservative party of Ontario and it’s leader Tim Hudak. Before I start, I want to acknowledge that Paul Burling has also penned a fantastic letter as well and touches on many items that illustrate what conservatism involves. His letter can be found here:

Follow him on Twitter as well @PaulinAjax. You won’t be disappointed.

Paul has outlined some very practical strategies for the conservatives to take back the province and rid ourselves of the scourge that are the Liberals and their wanna-be cousins the NDP. The advice I’d like to offer is the way we should be selling this to the Ontario electorate.

Many times I’ve listened to policy initiatives and statements that sound good, but are incomplete. The greatest example is the downsizing of the public service by 100,000. what you failed to do was to qualify it by saying how.  What happened was you allowed the Liberals to fill that void by saying you’d fire, FIRE, them all and they even decided for you who —  be it teachers or health care workers — all the sacred stuff. Next time , please qualify how you’ll do something, on your terms, before it’s announced.

Another example is the Million jobs plan. Always remember that the “Parties of the Left” are the party’s of misery.   Only they could poo-poo about the ambitious plan to create jobs in Ont.  They have the intellectual bankruptcy of complaining that the PC’s would have lied to us if only 850,000 jobs had been created.   Further to this is the statement that  “Every Monday morning 1 million wake up to not having a job.”  Why not take it that one step more by saying that:

 “It’s our intention that we want to have as many waking up to a job on a Monday morning as possible.”

“Remember what it’s like when you got that phone-call that said ‘You’re hired.’?  I do.  I felt great about myself that someone wanted me.   Or at that job interview when the hiring manager asks  ‘When can you start?’   Now you can look forward to providing for your family in a meaningful way.  Now you can afford to put your son/daughter into the organized sports they want. Maybe now you can qualify for that house. Perhaps now you can afford that vacation.

For too long this province has been in a funk, no thanks to the Liberals and NDP.  Not only are we a “have-not” province, but we must lead all provinces and territories in malaise and anxiety. We want Ontarians to be able to relax, live their lives and be happy and not to have a sickening knot in your gut every time you open a Hydro bill.”

To you the PC’s , get us out of our funk. Make our province proud again. Make every policy statement one that shines with optimism and leave the other parties grumbling. It’s what they do best.

There’s a conservative commentator in the US (Bill Whittle)who does a splendid job in what it should mean to be a conservative and has many sound strategies to convey that message.  One of the lessons he learned after the 2012 presidential election was
that in many of the exit polls, Romney won on just about everything the economy, foreign policy, domestic policy, everything.

All except on one question. “Who cares about you more”, and this is how Obama won it.
Learn from this lesson. Frame everything into a positive message that explains that PC’s aren’t out to eat your children or to send women into slave camps or you’ll toss welfare recipients over Niagara Falls.    Get that message through to them that PC’s do care.

Finally, here is a link to a Youtube video by Bill Whittle outlining the game plan for conservatism. It’s brilliant and although it has US examples, the theory translates well to our situation in Ontario.  To me the most important strategy comes at 5:50 of part 2. but listen to it all!

Rural Ontario Fights Back Against Wind Turbine Fiasco!

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Agricultural issues take centre stage at all-candidates forum in Listowel

By Mike Beitz, The Beacon Herald

Thursday, May 29, 2014 10:16:15 EDT AM

Perth-Middlesex candidates, from left, Irma DeVries (Family Coalition), Matthew Murphy (independent), Romayne Smith Fullerton (NDP), Chris Desjardins (Green), Randy Pettapiece (Progressive Conservative), Robby Smink (Freedom) and Stewart Skinner (Liberal), participate in a forum in Listowel Wednesday night hosted by the Perth and Middlesex federations of agriculture. (MIKE BEITZ, The Beacon Herald)

Perth-Middlesex candidates, from left, Irma DeVries (Family Coalition), Matthew Murphy (independent), Romayne Smith Fullerton (NDP), Chris Desjardins (Green), Randy Pettapiece (Progressive Conservative), Robby Smink (Freedom) and Stewart Skinner (Liberal), participate in a forum in Listowel Wednesday night.
A small group of protesters with “Stop the Turbines” and “Not a Willing Host” signs standing outside of the St. Joseph’s Parish Centre in Listowel Wednesday night foreshadowed a key issue that would be discussed inside. Industrial wind turbine projects were raised several times during a well-attended all-candidates forum hosted by the Perth and Wellington federations of agriculture. But it wasn’t until well into the evening that the seven participating provincial candidates – Irma DeVries (Family Coalition Party), Matthew Murphy (independent), Romayne Smith Fullerton (NDP), Chris Desjardins (Green Party), Randy Pettapiece (Progressive Conservative Party), Robby Smink (Freedom Party) and Stewart Skinner (Liberal Party), were asked directly if they support them. Predictably, none of them gave an outright yes. Murphy suggested several times that turbines belong offshore, where their impact on communities would be minimized, and also advocated for more local control over where they’re located. “I think you have a right to say, ‘We don’t want them nearby. We don’t want them here,'” he said. Smith Fullerton agreed with the need for more local control, and suggested that the issue has been “devastating” for rural Ontario. The NDP would consult with the auditor general to determine if contracts could be opened up again, she added. Desjardin argued that wind turbine projects should be “community owned,” with the community deciding where they’re placed. When told by someone in the audience that 70 Ontario communities have declared themselves unwilling hosts for wind turbines, he looked shocked. “We do want the community to say where they’re going, and if you’re an unwilling host, I guess they’re not going in your community,” said Desjardins. Pettapiece said it was unfortunate that wind turbine opponents in rural Ontario are given the NIMBY (not in my backyard) label. “We would cancel the FIT program that deals with these projects,” he said, “and we would certainly investigate the contracts that have been handed out on anything that’s not hooked up to the grid.” Smink, who prefaced most of his responses with a criticism of government interference, did the same when describing his stance on the “windmill idiocy.” “This is exactly the type of problems that you have when you have big government basically telling you how to run your life,” he said. DeVries, who repeated a similar “smaller government” mantra throughout the evening, said the Family Coalition Party would introduce legislation to restore the rights of municipalities to refuse turbines. Even Skinner, whose Liberal Party implemented the Green Energy Act, said that changes are in order, particularly when it comes to protecting fertile soil like those found in Perth-Wellington. “Going forward, I’m going to advocate for protection for prime farmland, that we’re not placing turbines on good Class 1 and Class 2 lands,” he said, adding that he would push for minimum distance separation between turbines and livestock operations. His suggestion that neither he nor any of the other candidates could stop the controversial wind turbine projects planned just outside of Listowel, and that “it’s done,” prompted a sharp response from the crowd. “It’s not done,” several people called out loudly. The wind turbine issues was just one of a number of rural-focused topics on which the candidates were quizzed at the forum Wednesday. Preserving prime agricultural land, extending natural gas lines to rural areas, keeping electricity rates affordable, protecting front-line health care workers and supporting agriculture education in schools were just a few of the issues on which there was general – but not total – agreement. The candidates are expected to square off again tonight in Stratford at a forum organized by the Stratford and District Chamber of Commerce. mike.beitz@sunmedia.ca ​

101, (out of over a Billion) reasons NOT to Vote for Wynne & the Liberals!

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Title - Chris Savard
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Ontario Election: 101 reasons not to vote for Kathleen Wynne
By Chris Savard

OurHometown.ca
Ontario Election: 101 reasons not to vote for Kathleen Wynne
The reality is that this $5 million in funding for children with special needs is literally a drop in Lake Ontario compared to the wasteful spending practices of the McGunity-Wynne Liberals over the last 11 years. This amount works out to the equivalent of less than $50,000 per riding across the province.
PHOTO CREDIT – KathleenWynne.ca

Stoney Point – May 20, 2014 –OurHometown.ca recently received a media release from the Ontario Liberal Party, touting how they plan to invest an additional $5 million to help children with special needs. The release went on to say that NDP leader Andrea Horwath has put this funding at risk by not supporting the budget.

The reality is that this $5 million in funding for children with special needs is literally a drop in Lake Ontario compared to the wasteful spending practices of the McGunity-Wynne Liberals over the last 11 years. This amount works out to the equivalent of less than $50,000 per riding across the province.

In 2007 when I ran for a seat in the provincial legislature, I heard from many families who expressed concern about the lack of support and length of wait times for assistance for children with Autism. Since that time, our son Tristan has been diagnosed with autism. While I thought I understood the magnitude of the problem then, I most certainly do now.

We have been told that Windsor-Essex has some of the shortest wait times in the province, yet Tristan has been on the wait list for over 18 months for IBI therapy. The coordinators and therapists we deal with are great but their hands are tied on how quickly the list can move simply because there is not enough money to meet the ever growing demand. Current stats suggest that 1 in 68 children will be diagnosed with autism.

Needless to say, the release from Kathleen Wynne hit a nerve with us, as we can see the wasteful spending and how it detracts from assistance for children like Tristan. In this instance, I am drawing analogies to the special needs funding shortfall but there are countless other provincial priorities that could put additional funding to good use – health care, education, job development, tourism and the list goes on.

The Liberals are running a tag line on their website today – “What Leadership is”. How ironic.

I was recently sent a list compiled by Marilyn E. Taylor of McGuinty-Wynne scandals and poor management practices. It clearly provides 101 reasons not to vote Liberal on June 12th.

Green Energy Act (20 billion)

eHealth scandal (almost 2 billion)

Gas plant scandal (1.1 billion theft and cover-up of our tax dollars)

Deleting e-mails

ORNGE scandal (700 million)

Ontario Northland Railway scandal (820 million)

Caledonia Hydro Line scandal (116 million)

Lobbyist scandal (two multi-million dollar scandals)

Eco-Fee Reversal scandal (18 million)

CancerCare Ontario scandal (millions of dollars)

Slush Fund scandal (32 million)

Niagara Falls Commission scandal

Ontario Power Generation scandal

Children’s Aid Society scandal

Nanticoke Coal Power Plant Shutdown scandal

G20 Secretly Approved Police Power scandal

Auto Insurance scandal

Foreign Scholarships scandal (our students pay the highest tuition in Canada while foreign students get free university educations)

Offshore Wind Turbines scandal

Samsung scandal (sole-sourcing)

Pan Am scandal (cost increase from 1.4 to 2.5 billion)

MPAC scandal (over and under-valuation of properties)

OLG scandal (millions of dollars)

Isotape Shortage scandal

Chemotherapy Dosage scandal

Payout for Pan Am CEO (250 million)

Trillium Wind Power and Sky Power Limited lawsuit (500 million)

Cement company lawsuit (275 million) – Quarry outside Hamilton was scuttled for political reasons

School bus service lawsuit

Augusta/Westland lawsuit as it pertains to ORNGE

Elliot Lake Collapse lawsuits (two lives lost due to recovery delays)

Ontario Medical Association lawsuits – applied to Superior Court alleging McGuinty not negotiating in “good faith”

Breast Screening scandal (ensuing lawsuits due to thousands of misread mammograms, one life lost)

Class-action lawsuit for autism funding cancellation

Over 650 new agencies, boards, commissions and entities such as LHIN’s and CCAC’s

Over 300,000 new public servants many of whom, are on the sunshine list

Public sector employment in health care increased by 39%

Public sector employment in social services increased by 39%

Public sector employment in education increased by 34%

Paying more Liberal taxes only to receive fewer services as taxes now being spent to pay the salaries and perks of newly-assigned, Liberal-friendly public servants

Gutted our manufacturing base (job growth across Canada except in Ontario)

Nearly one million Ontarians now out of work

Increased spending by 80% while our economy grew by only 9%

More than doubled our debt to 288 billion

Running a 11.3 billion annual deficit

Debt servicing costs will rise from 11.4 billion today to 14.5 billion once the debt exceeds 300 billion by 2017-18

Interest payments on our debt now the third largest budget expenditure after health and education

Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress confirmed that McGuinty’s Green Energy Act grossly underestimated the cost to consumers and overestimated the number of new jobs that would be created

Tax collectors getting 45,000.00 severance packages for switching job titles from provincial to federal

Two ministries under an OPP criminal investigation – ORNGE and gas plant scandals

Pharmacy war

Illegal green taxes

Increased smart meter, electricity, hydro, tuition and car insurance costs

Implemented tire tax, electronics tax, eco fee, health premium (tax), WSIB tax increase, HST, beer surtax

Failing grade on ADHD education

Ranking the lowest of all provinces for fiscal performance

Delisting eye exams, physiotherapy, chiropractic care, diabetic strips, etc.

Increasing wait time for cataract surgery

No longer covered for eye exams yet taxpayers paying for sex changes

Wait time for nursing home bed tripled

Failure to disclose elevated radiation levels

OES missed its collection and recycling targets by 59%

Not correcting the foreign ownership of our beer market

Acceptance of garbage striker extortion

Harassing labour inspectors

Kowtowing to green energy lobbies

Imposing blood alcohol rules that punish people who are not impaired

Public utilities donating to Liberals

Voting to cover up the Niagara Parks Commission scandal

Emergency room wait times not meeting provincial targets

Put on notice by Standard and Poor, credit rating downgraded, under a very serious credit watch

Have-not province for the first time in Canadian history

Borrowing more debt than any province except NB

Dramatic cuts in health care services in schools

Nurses getting bonuses despite a wage freeze

Insufficient senior homecare services

Failing grade of Family Responsibility Office

Abstained from vote to investigate CBC expenses

Cash kickback scheme involving government cleaning contracts

Talked about a two-year freeze on wages for public sector while previously giving the OPP a 5% wage increase – the OPP received another raise of over 8% in January, 2014

Energy now unaffordable yet we must pay Quebec and some north-eastern States to take our surplus energy

Encouraging farmers to build small-scale solar projects but having no way to connect them to the power grid

Laid up in US hospital beds as no beds available in Ontario

Refusing public inquiry into G20 fiasco

Giving those who hire only newcomers a 10,000.00 tax credit

Third highest user of food banks

Announced pay freezes knowing that 38,000 were getting a 3% salary increase after the election

Hiding hospital errors from the public

Teachers skipping classes to assist with anti-Conservative campaign

Failing grade in northern forestry management

Almost 40 C. difficile deaths to date

Loss of 6,500 cancer patient health records

Highest rent increase rate in years

Ignoring evidence that wind turbines can cause poor health

Workers at eHealth suing for not receiving bonuses

Liam denied eye care that another child is receiving under OHIP

Ontarians pleading for their lives or dying because they aren’t getting the health care they need

Lady with a brain tumor denied help to cover costs which costs are covered in Manitoba

Electricity rates to rise 42% over five years

Prior loss of 60,000 jobs in the horse racing industry – now attempting to correct this

Cleaning kick-back scheme that ended with the conviction of three persons (two of whom were employed by Wynne’s ministry at the time …)



More Sneaky Underhanded Tricks From Kathleen Wynne, and the Liberals!

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Kathleen Wynne’s $317MM Secret Bailout

MAY 29

“Kathleen Wynne approved a $317 million bailout to a private company without the public’s knowledge or approval of the Legislature,” said former Ontario PC MPP Frank Klees. “She needs to explain why this secret deal was never made public.”

This morning, Klees released a series of confidential Cabinet documents outlining Kathleen Wynne’s secret plan to bailout the MaRS office building in downtown Toronto.

“Kathleen Wynne approved a multi-million bailout without the public’s knowledge and in a Cabinet room right before an election,” said Klees “Not only was this hidden from the public, she needs to explain why this secret deal was made after she dissolved the Legislature.”

The McGuinty–Wynne Liberals gave $234MM to MaRS and Alexandria Real Estate, Inc. to build a brand new office tower on prime real estate in downtown Toronto. Now that the private company and MaRS are unable to repay their loans, the government is using tax dollars to secretly bail them out to avoid political embarrassment.

The documents go on to say that failure to act will likely result in MaRS defaulting on its loan, causing foreclosure.

“Kathleen Wynne approved this deal in secret to avoid another public embarrassment for her scandal-plagued government,” said Klees, “Kathleen Wynne will do and say absolutely anything to cling to power, no matter what the cost to Ontario taxpayers,” Klees concluded.

“These documents read like a repeat of the Ornge documents that were sent to me by whistleblowers who could no longer stand the corruption that was going on there,” said Klees, “Millions of taxpayer dollars poured into a federally-incorporated charity, with no government oversight.”

 

The government will justify taking over the MaRS Phase II project by making the currently un-leased office space in the MaRS building home to the Ontario Public Service at prices that will not have to be put to competitive scrutiny.

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS

http://ontariopc.com/files/treasury-board-of-cabinet-submission-mars-phase-2.pdf

http://ontariopc.com/files/mars-phase-2-briefing-for-secretary-of-cabinet.pdf

http://ontariopc.com/files/backgrounder-mars.pdf

Liberals Desperate to Deflect Blame!  

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EXPOSING LIBERAL HALF-TRUTHS —

THE HARRIS HOSPITAL CLOSURE MYTH

Burlington Post — September 2009

The Ontario Liberals have quietly pushed their tall tales, saying the PC government under Mike Harris gutted Ontario’s health-care system.

Their tales go beyond spin and enter the realm of self-serving lie. It is most telling that the Liberals never bring this lie into public debate, they merely use it as part of a whisper campaign, repeating it until it begins to take hold among the general populace.

For example, references to hospital closures that I’ve found suggest that in total the Liberals claim that the PC government closed 39 hospitals in Ontario. They arrive at this number in two ways. Several places in Ontario, including Thunder Bay, Cobourg, Peterborough and Sault Ste. Marie, had two aging hospital facilities. The PCs closed these old, outdated hospitals and built new ones.

The Liberals have lied by omission, in failing to account for the new hospitals that were built in Ontario, some to replace aging buildings and several entirely new hospitals to serve growing populations. By my count we closed 12 hospitals in this manner and opened 17 new ones.

In addition, several hospitals located in close proximity were amalgamated to save on administrative costs. For example, Oakville Trafalgar, Milton District and Georgetown hospitals were amalgamated into Halton Healthcare Services. Liberal Party math says we closed three hospitals. The truth is we simply streamlined the costs — the facilities never closed. We repeated this in major urban centres across Ontario.

The truth is we streamlined costs, opened new facilities to replace aging buildings, significantly grew health-care facilities and increased services in Ontario.

The Liberals conveniently forget the PC government opened new facilities across the province to house 20,000 long-term care patients, people who were taking spaces in acute-care hospitals. In addition, we upgraded existing long-term care facilities for 16,000 Ontarians.

This isn’t only about hospitals. If the PCs gutted health care, how do they explain the expansion of nursing positions? How do they explain our creation of home-care services? How do they explain our substantially-increased funding for cardiac and cancer care and expanded cancer care centres across Ontario? How do they explain 52 new MRIs the PCs brought to Ontario where only 12 existed and the addition of 55 CT scanners? At what point does partisan political spin damage our society? At what point do lies like this get punished by voters?

Ted Chudleigh is the Conservative MPP for Halton.

To read a detailed listing of the exact names and locations of the hospitals, see our previous post here…..

HosptialPage-2

The Liberals have lied about the Conservative’s Platform!!

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MATT YOUNG DENOUNCES FEAR MONGERING ABOUT PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS

Photo: Ottawa Citizen

During an all-candidates’ debate hosted by Rogers on May 27, PC candidate for Ottawa South Matt Young refuted misinformation being spread about public service job losses. “We’re not going to touch public safety. Our platform makes it clear. We’re going to hire more nurses and more doctors” he said, adding that a PC government will focus on hiring more front-line workers to improve the services that we all rely on.

“There has been a lot of misinformation out there,” he said, adding that out of Ontario’s 1.1 million public sector employees, 50,000 retire or quit each year, so it’s easier to reduce 100,000 jobs over four years by hiring one person for every two who retire.

“You don’t have to destroy our economy to provide good services,” he told his opponents. The PC plan calls for lower taxes, affordable energy, job creation, better services like healthcare, and a balanced budget. This will ease the burden on households and get Ontario businesses back to the province.

Rogers is re-broadcasting the debate on Monday June 2 at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday June 3 at 8 p.m., and Sunday June 8 at 6 p.m.

Two other debates are scheduled:

– Canterbury All-Candidates Debate: all candidates’ debate at Hillcrest High School this Thursday, May 29th, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m

– Ottawa Muslim Coordinating Council: all-candidates’ debate at the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre on Walkley Road on Monday, June 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Please share this page with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s all work with Matt for a better Ontario.

Ontario Pension Plan….another cash cow for Liberals?

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Philip Cross: Ontario’s proposed pension

plan is riddled with faulty assumptions!

Philip Cross, Special to Financial Post | May 27, 2014 | Last Updated:May 28 8:16 AM ET

Simply asking people if they’d like to save more does not, by itself, demonstrate insufficient savings.

FotoliaSimply asking people if they’d like to save more does not, by itself, demonstrate insufficient saving

Traditionally Ontarians have one of the highest personal saving rates in the country

The Ontario government’s proposal to supplement the CPP with its own compulsory pension plan is based on a series of faulty assumptions.

A fundamental but unproven assumption is that people are not saving enough for their retirement. Another faulty assumption is that workers can’t make the link between insufficient saving and retirement, and unwittingly retire without enough to secure their retirement – people behave as if they’re richer than they really are, a self-delusion that only exists in economic models. A third assumption is that governments can mandate higher household saving, when the evidence is that other savings fall when government raises mandatory public pension taxes.

The government assumes that large pension plans always generate higher returns and minimize risk, although Quebec’s public pension plan demonstrates just the opposite. It is also assumed that investment is currently constrained by a lack of saving, and any increase in saving will boost investment. Finally, there is an assumption that higher investment automatically boosts productivity. All of these assumptions are questionable if not downright incorrect.

It is ironic that Ontario stresses that people are not saving enough when traditionally Ontarians have one of the highest personal saving rates in the country. From 1990 to 2008, Ontario’s personal saving rate was always higher than the rest of Canada. After the 2008 recession, Ontario more than doubled its saving rate to 6.8%, much higher than the 4.4% rate elsewhere in Canada.

Related

The household saving rate in Ontario uncharacteristically has returned to the national average, reflecting the pressure on households to stretch every dollar to sustain their living standard. This squeeze on household finances exists despite lower interest rates, which saved about 2% of income from servicing debt. However, income growth has been so weak in Ontario that people had to lower saving to maintain consumption.

It isn’t that Ontarians lack sufficient income to save after making their everyday expenses, the government believes. Rather, Ontarians don’t save more due to the same lack of discipline in managing finances that the government displays. To support its case, the budget cites polls of people wishing they could save more. Of course, the vast majority of people, if asked, would also say they would like better homes and cars, more travel and entertainement and so on. Simply asking people if they’d like to save more does not, by itself, demonstrate insufficient savings.

The underlying problem in Ontario is that real per capita incomes fell over the last two years, their first such declines since the early 1990s. The squeeze on household incomes means saving more would require cutting back on spending, a logic that households in Ontario seem to understand better than their government. In such an environment, raising mandatory saving will not boost household saving, as people will reduce other forms of saving (like RRSPs) to maintain their standard of living. This is what happened in the late 1990s, the last time mandatory pension taxes were increased.

The ideal scenario is stronger income and job growth, which would allow both spending and saving to increase. Instead, the higher taxes required for the Ontario pension plan will depress household income and spending. The Ontario Budget glosses over the implication of employees paying 3.8 percentage points more on nearly twice as much income as the current CPP. It will cost individuals up to $3,420 a year, or nearly $7,000 for a working couple. About three million Ontario workers will be affected.

The government believes that more saving would benefit the economy by increasing investment, despite no evidence that investment is currently limited by a lack of saving. In fact, firms have increased their saving substantially over the past two decades. Given the high internal saving of firms, how would more household saving increase business investment? A lack of profitable opportunities has discouraged business investment, not a lack of funds. It is noteworthy that investment has floundered the most in Ontario and Quebec, where a hostile environment to business has prevailed. Large government deficits also inhibit investment, since they promise unknown but inevitable tax hikes and spending cuts in the future.

There are also several flaws in the design of the management of the Ontario pension plan’s assets. Because the fund will be very large, its investments necessarily will be concentrated in fewer areas than individual investors would make on their own. This exposes the fund to the risk of a spectacularly poor investment decision, as happened to the Quebec Pension Plan in 2007, potentially offsetting whatever efficiences are gained from lower management costs.

The fundamental problem behind the Ontario government’s thinking about all economic problems – whether a perceived lack of saving, low business investment or changing the distribution of income – is that it has forgotten how rapid economic growth addresses all these problems without pitting one group against another over the table scraps left from meagre economic growth. Higher growth also would reduce the government deficit, the largest contribution to higher saving the Ontario government can make. It is time for Ontario to adopt policies that encourage growth.

Philip Cross is the former Chief Economic Analyst at Statistics Canada and the author of the Fraser Institute’s evaluation of the proposed Ontario Pension Plan.

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