With days left until voters decide who will lead Ontario’s next government, analysis of Doug Ford’s election plan finds that promised cuts will lead to up to 163,000 job losses across Ontario.
“Doug Ford likes to tell people he knows how to manage the economy, but his reckless tax cut plan guarantees that thousands of people are going to lose their jobs, and this is not what the people of Ontario need,” says Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “Working people need good jobs they can count on to take care of their families and support businesses in their communities. Doug Ford seems to think tax cuts for corporations and the rich are more important.”
Only a week before the election, Ford released a partially costed version of his election promises that includes approximately $7.6 billion in annual tax cuts and revenue reductions and a net $500 million reduction in annual spending. At the same time, he has promised to balance the budget by 2021/22.
In addition to promising over $7 billion in annual tax cuts, which would result in higher deficits, Ford is also promising to eliminate the deficit in year three or four. He’s claimed they could balance the budget by finding 4 cents of every dollar in “efficiencies,” though has not provided any specific examples. Four per cent of Ontario’s projected of $154.4 billion in program spending for 2021/22 amounts to $6.2 billion, which is close to, but still short of the $7.6 billion deficit projected for Ford’s plan in 2021/22. He would need to cut Ontario’s program spending even more to eliminate the deficit.
“Ford likes to throw around the word efficiencies as if it will magically erase the cost of providing the public services we all need,” Hahn says. “It doesn’t work that way. You cannot cut billions of dollars in annual revenue without cutting services and laying off the workers that provide them.”
“The people of Ontario cannot afford a Doug Ford government,” says Hahn. “It might work for the richest among us, but definitely not for working people and our families.”
A complete analysis of the Ontario Conservative plan by economist Toby Sanger can be found at: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2018/06/04/ford-plan-for-ontario-potential-employment-impacts/
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