The release of the latest provincial budget Thursday, March 25, was for Beaches-East York MPP Michael Prue, "the darkest day since the (former premier) Mike Harris era."
The longtime local member of provincial parliament pointed to two "particularly egregious" aspects of the budget."If you take transit, you're screwed and if you're poor you've been screwed," he said.Prue, who serves as the Ontario NDP's finance critic among other things, added he was especially "livid" to learn $4.5 billion has been cut from transit funding for Toronto."All the hype and stories for the last two years have been bogus, nonsense," he said of the provincial government's ongoing promotion and support for the Transit City plan."The total loss of transit funding is a huge blow to our community."In terms of low-income Ontarians, Prue chastised Premier Dalton McGuinty for not taking concrete steps to help people living in poverty.Prue said the new budget only provided a one per cent increase to the Ontario Disability Support Plan and Ontario Works program."We're five per cent worse off after seven years of Dalton because inflation is at 15 per cent," said Prue, also expressing his upset at the elimination of the special diet allowance.Further, Prue said he new harmonized sale tax is "baloney.""It's like the emperor with no clothes," he said pointing to a budget he said is all talk and no action, and one he said he believes is being used to garner strategic votes for the Liberal Party. Like his colleague to the east, Toronto-Danforth MPP Peter Tabuns also said the recently released provincial budget lacks teeth."In a province where a lot of people are worried about holding on to or getting a job, this budget isn't going to help them," said the Ontario NDP's critic for energy and the environment. With cuts to Toronto's transit funding, Tabuns said in the long run there would be more congestion, more pollution, and in turn further economic decline."We need (improved transit) as soon as possible. (Cutting the funding) was a big mistake," he said.Prue and Tabuns said one of the positive aspects of the new Ontario budget is funding for daycare spaces.Quick to applaud parents and advocates for their hard work to lobby the government for support, the two local MPPs still said they'd continue to fight to maintain provincial funds for childcare."Clearly parents made a lot of noise about the funding for daycare. We've got a partial victory in the budget on daycare but we need a full victory," Tabuns said, adding a balance needs to be struck between funding daycare and funding all-day kindergarten. "(Daycare funding) is only for a year. There's no ongoing money promised," Prue said, noting he's not adverse to budget deficits in difficult economic times. Tabuns also mentioned the budget makes no mention of climate change targets instead passing the responsibility on to the federal government."The province does have a role. It needs to do its share," he said, adding the budget also neglects to provide any additional financial support for the arts, notably film and television, which has a strong concentration in his downtown east riding.