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Horwath hopes for 'real changes' in budget

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath said she's hoping the province includes some of her party's ideas when they release their budget this spring.
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Provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath (centre) speaks at the Old Rock Coffee Roasting Company on Minto Street March 13. She is seen with former provincial Sudbury riding candidate Paul Loewenberg and Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath said she's hoping the province includes some of her party's ideas when they release their budget this spring.

“I've purposely set some ideas out there, and not set any lines in the sand,” she told reporters gathered at the Old Rock Coffee Roasting Company location on Minto Street March 13.

“I think I've made it pretty clear to the government that we want to see some real changes in their focus. I've left it up to them to decide exactly what specifics they're going to bring forward.”

No date has yet been set for the provincial budget's release, but Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan has publicly stated he'd like to present the budget by the end of this month.

For the first time since they were elected in 2003, the provincial Liberals aren't assured of passing their budget, as they have now have a minority government. They need the support of at least some opposition members.

“By electing a minority government last fall, Ontarians sent a very strong signal to politicians to set aside their partisan squabbling,” Horwath said. “Ontarians expect their elected officials to focus on the challenges facing families today.”

She named a number of her party's priorities for the budget, including removing the HST from home heating and hydro, increasing or at least holding the line on corporate tax cuts, instituting a new tax credit for companies that create new jobs, cutting the small business tax from 4.5 per cent to four per cent and ensuring minerals taken out of the ground in Ontario are processed here.

Horwath said she's also been out on the road for the last few weeks, listening to Ontarians' priorities ahead of the budget.

“We heard pretty clearly that households are struggling, and struggling significantly,” she said. “Small businesses could also use a helping hand.”

In terms of the Don Drummond report released last month, Horwath said she fundamentally disagrees with some of the “doom and gloom” predictions it contains.
She said Drummond, an economist charged with finding ways to balance the province's budget by 2017-18, predicts only two per cent GDP growth over the next couple of years.

There are other economists who are a “little bit more optimistic,” and predict 2.4 or 2.6 per cent GDP growth, Horwath said.

Drummond also is of the view that the government should give up on trying to create jobs, Horwath said, something she wholeheartedly disagrees with.

She also disagrees with his focus on privatizing some parts of the health-care system.

Horwath said she doesn't “want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” though, as Drummond had some good ideas in his report.

“Some are things that have been talked about for a long time, such as further integration in the health system, investment in home care, and nurse practitioners being able to use their entire scope of practice to be able to take some pressure off of parts of the health system,” she said.

Posted by Arron Pickard

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Heidi Ulrichsen

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