For Immediate Release
June 11, 2004

Liberals shut down debate on broken promise budget

Time allocation motion an affront to Liberal democratic renewal commitment

Queen’s Park – Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett says the Liberal government move to shut down debate on their 2004 budget adds another Liberal pledge to the broken promise heap.

On Thursday, the Liberals used their majority government to force closure of second reading budget debate, sending the budget to the Finance Committee for only one day (four hours) of public hearings, and one day of clause-by-clause committee consideration before heading back to the Legislature for third and a final vote, without further debate.

“In their election platform, the Liberals promised to, ‘ensure that you have the opportunity to offer comment on all public bills,’” said Barrett. “What bill could be more ‘major’ than one that breaks major campaign promises, raises taxes and delists health services just seven months after a general election in which the elected party promised the exact opposite?”

“If this government were really interested in giving the public a voice to deliver input to this budget, they would allow for a full slate of hearings – not just four hours on two working-days notice,” said Barrett. “In the wake of a poll showing less than 10 per cent support for the Premier, it looks like this government is rushing to shut the door on public debate so they can silence the calls to have this broken promise budget scrapped.”

Despite the small window of opportunity for input, Barrett encouraged all those interested in commenting to the committee to contact his Simcoe office for more information.

The deadline for those wishing to present to the committee is Monday at 12 noon – the deadline for written submissions is Monday at 5:00pm.

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629