Reevely: Provincial Tories blow lid off Liberals budget plans
OTTAWA An apparent plan by the Ontario Liberals to turn their next budget into a month-long series of image-boosting announcements has been blown by a leak to the Progressive Conservatives of a preliminary schedule of the events.
Traditionally, budgets were kept rigidly secret until the finance minister got up to give a speech and revealed major new spending and taxes for the first time. That secrecy has lessened in recent years, with governments at all levels dripping out bits of their plans in advance to get maximum bang out of them. But even by that standard, the 39 events contained in the calendar released by the Tories, leading up to an anticlimactic presentation of the actual budget on May 1, would have been extraordinary.
Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of drafting civil servants to do the Liberals campaigning for them through what he called a budget leaking team.
Until now, it had been kept secret, he said in the legislature. We did hear from whistleblowers within the civil service who are very concerned that you are now drafting Ontario public servants to do the work of the Ontario Liberal Party. Its not their job. They have a job to do but its not to be Liberal party staffers.
Wynne replied that of course the government has a communications plan to explain whats in the budget.
It is normal, when ministers make spending announcements, for civil servants to help organize their appearances and answer questions about government policy. Its just that those detailed announcements are supposed to come after the annual budget is released, not before.
The plan that fell into the Tories hands is not quite current: it includes details suggesting it was a draft prepared between March 4 and March 20. It includes the sketchiest possible entries about releasing a poverty-reduction report on Monday and an event touting consumer protection on Tuesday. Those events didnt happen; on the document, there are blanks where the details should be.
On the other hand, Finance Minister Charles Sousa is to deliver an in-depth analysis of Ontarios economic future Wednesday, right on schedule.
Where there are details, they describe some big spending. The biggest tickets are a $2-billion capital investment to support (1) school consolidations to reduce underused space and (2) repair and school maintenance, and a new $2.5B 10-year Jobs and Prosperity Fund to attract significant business investments.
The document also notes a $300-million plan to provide support to front-line public sector workers who deliver important services to most vulnerable and an investment of close to $730M over three years to address critical pressures and support long-term transformation of developmental services (and significantly reduce wait-lists).
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Reevely: Provincial Tories blow lid off Liberals budget plans