Ontario economic statement

The Liberals have released the fall economic statement saying the Ontario government is *on track* with slashing the province’s $11.7 billion deficit within four years. But Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the province plans to protect investments in jobs and growth, *ahead* of short-term targets to balance the books. Sousa also says the government is investing more than $35-billion in infrastructure over the next three years. And new plans, but no details have been unveiled, to lower drive clean fees for vehicle emissions testing. But PC Leader Tim Hudak says Liberal policy has put the province deep in debt.

And NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says Thursday’s economic statement shows the Liberals will continue to throw taxpayer’s dollars down the drain: “Ontarians waiting for jobs to be created and for our economy to grow are going to have to continue to wait. Ontarians are going to have to wait for respect to be shown for public money and waste to be stopped and to see their lives become more affordable.”

Tim Hudak: “Look, you can’t spend your way out of deficit, and you can’t tax rate a prosperity. If that worked we’d already be there by now because that’s all we’ve seen in the last five years. The Liberal policy has put us deep in debt they’ve cost a lot of jobs, and they’re driving up hydro bills and I don’t see why six more months of the exact same policy is going to change anything.”

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa: “We can’t do drastic across the board cuts. Listen, we know what the opposition are saying and frankly Tim Hudak doesn’t get it. Achieving a zero deficit is not a victory if you have zero growth in jobs.”

And we’re joined by Finance Minister Charles Sousa.