For immediate release:
April 1, 2009

Barrett laments Ontario’s historic have-not status designation

Queen’s Park – April Fool’s Day hijinx were on full display in the Legislature as Haldimand Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett’s questions about Ontario’s official designation as a have-not province were met with some diversionary responses from the government.

“Its official: Ontario is a have-not province. You can’t just blame this on the decline of the rest of the industrialized world - all the other provinces within the Dominion of Canada have been subject to the same kinds of economic pressures,” Barrett said. “How did it come to this? How did you manage to get the great province of Ontario into this pickle?”

In response, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan attempted to "fool" members into believing that the province’s official designation of have-not status was actually a good thing.

“Ontario will in fact be getting some of the money back now that it’s put into the federation, our own money,” the Minister stated. “It doesn’t reflect have or have-not status.”

Barrett went on to paint the Minister a clear picture of what government’s lack of planning has done to the former economic engine of Canada.

“On April Fool’s Day, the Toronto Sun, has a full front-page caricature of our Premier, tin cup in hand, Pinocchio nose down to the sidewalk—that’s have-not status,” Barrett described. “Minister, you talk about a plan; the only plan we have seen is seven years of projected red ink, seven years of deficits. Do you have a real plan to get us out of this predicament? Do you really care? Have you and your colleagues—essentially, we get the impression that you’ve given up?”

An obviously oblivious Minister Duncan answered that, “This is the province that will lead Canada out of these difficult times.”

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (416) 325-8404,
(519) 428-0446 or 1-800-903-8629

Ontario LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
Wednesday 1 April 2009

Ontario economy

Mr. Toby Barrett: My question is to the Minister of Finance. As of today, April Fool’s Day, we all know that history has been made. It’s official: Ontario is a have-not province. You can’t just blame this on the decline of the rest of the industrialized world. All the other provinces within the Dominion of Canada have been subject to the same kinds of economic pressures.

Minister of Finance, my question is: How did it come to this? How did you manage to get the great province of Ontario into this pickle? Will you please explain?

Hon. Dwight Duncan: Ontario will in fact be getting some of the money back now that it’s put into the federation, our own money. I would say, it’s the result, as Mr. MacKinnon and others have said, of a gerrymandered equation that sees the vast majority of Canadians living in provinces that receive equalization. It doesn’t reflect have or have-not status. It reflects the seriousness—and that’s not us. There’s a body of work done by a whole range of people that suggest that.

We’ve laid out a plan to move Ontario forward. We’re investing some $32 billion in infrastructure. I see Mr. Hudak is opposed to that, and the Conservatives, I presume, are opposed to that. We are reducing personal taxes by $10.6 billion, corporate taxes by more than $4 billion, and we’re investing in the kinds of human services that make this province, I believe, the best place in Canada to live.

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary?
Mr. Toby Barrett: Well, the best we hear is, “We’re getting some money back.”

Minister, this is embarrassing. On April Fool’s Day, the Toronto Sun, for example, has a full front-page caricature of our Premier, tin cup in hand, Pinocchio nose down to the sidewalk—that’s have-not status. This is not the Ontario I grew up in.

Minister, you talk about a plan; the only plan we have seen is seven years of projected red ink, seven years of deficits. Do you have a real plan to get us out of this predicament? Do you really care? Have you and your colleagues—essentially, we get the impression that you’ve given up? Perhaps you’ve panicked; you’re taking the easy way out. Perhaps you see yourself as spending your way out of have-not status. What is the real plan, Minister?

Hon. Dwight Duncan: There is a Sun newspaper I would like to remind the member of. The Vancouver Sun on March 30, and let me read to the member what was in that editorial: “The case for BC to harmonize its sales tax with the GST has long been strong. Now it’s even more compelling.  ...  [Ontario is] an aggressive competitor. We can ill-afford to leave unchallenged this new major tax advantage Ontario is creating for itself.”

This is the best province in Canada, in spite of the gerrymandered equation on something called equalization. This is the province that will lead Canada out of these difficult times, and the people across Ontario have a plan from this government that invests in our future, both the immediate future and the long-term future that will make this still the best place to live and do business in the country.