QUEEN’S PARK – “The Liberals have been telling us a fairytale story about the budget, while their own top bureaucrats and experts do not even believe what the McGuinty-Wynne government is saying,” Leone said. “Instead of being open and honest about the severity of cuts needed to balance the books, the Liberals spun a story that was totally divorced from the stark economic reality.” Despite expert advice to reverse course as early as 2011, the Liberal government ignored recommendations that could have helped restore Ontario to economic health, Cambridge PC MPP Rob Leone said today.
In confidential advice provided to the Liberal cabinet, top bureaucrat Peter Wallace reveals that the Liberal fiscal and economic plan “will not work”.
PCs Say Liberals are Telling Fairytales
Describing the fiscal context as “screwed up” and “not pretty,” Wallace goes on to call the Liberal plan “toast.” He offered a number of possible ways to remedy the situation ranging from being honest about the inability to meet deficit targets, making necessary decisions to reduce spending, and not disclosing the lack of fiscal plan.
“The Liberals were presented with a number of options for dealing with this terrible fiscal situation,” Leone stated. “They could have made the tough decisions by reining in runaway spending, freezing government wages, and reforming public sector pensions. Instead, they chose to hide the real numbers, in a political attempt to avoid scrutiny on the government’s lack of plan to bring this province to balance.”
“We saw it with Dalton McGuinty and we’re seeing it with Kathleen Wynne. The Liberals keep putting their political interests first. That’s why we’re in this mess. The people of Ontario deserve better; they deserve an honest government that will lead this province back to prosperity,” Leone concluded.