THUNDER BAY – Several days ago, the Toronto Star reported that the McGuinty Government was planning a sale of up to 20 per cent of some of Ontario’s top crown corporations. That report has both the opposition leaders condemning the proposal.
“Dalton McGuinty’s proposed SuperCorp scheme is nothing more than a desperate cash grab, to fuel runaway Liberal spending, without providing any increased value to the taxpayer or improvements to customer service. Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today called on McGuinty to shelve his plan to merge Ontario Crown corporations into a single bureaucratic and inefficient monster corporation,” charges Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak.
Hudak says “That the process of lumping completely unrelated businesses such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One, and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp into a single corporation actually reduces the value of each asset and represents the kind of idea that the private sector abandoned over twenty years ago. In addition, the new monster corporation will be even less accountable and result in even more red-tape for consumers and families than the businesses that preceded it”.
The New Democrats are equally unimpressed. “While Dalton McGuinty’s HST will take money from the pockets of Ontario taxpayers, selling off publicly-owned assets would take money from the pockets of future generations”, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said today.
“Ontario’s public assets provide a vital, long-term revenue stream to fund our hospitals, schools and other essential services,” continued Horwath. “Selling off public assets for short-term gain means taking away revenue that future generations will rely on.”
Horwath stated, “The Premier’s musings about an asset sell-off is a short-sighted ploy to make provincial coffers look full before voters head back to the polls next fall. Leaving future generations without access to billions of dollars in annual public revenue would be unconscionable”.
The McGuinty Government has not issued a statement outlining the plan.
Here is a link to the original report in the Toronto Star.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/825858–ontario-asset-sale-could-raise-up-to-12-billion