For Immediate Release
October 22, 2009

Canada’s Worst Government Now Has Canada’s Worst Deficit

Queen’s Park – In the wake of a billion dollar eHealth scandal, the McGuinty government has announced that Ontario’s 2009/2010 deficit may ring in at a record $24.7 billion.

“Last year at this time Mr. McGuinty projected a half billion dollar deficit, and in March that number had grown to $14.1 billion,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “And now, Canada’s worst government is projecting Canada’s worst deficit.”

McGuinty’s contribution to the Ontario debt (Dalton’s debt) now stands at $65.2 billion. “That translates into $13,500 on the backs of every single household in our great province, a massive new debt burden on families whose household finances are already stretched to the limit,” said Official Opposition Leader Tim Hudak.

“…how could things get so bad so fast? Yes, we’re in a recession, but even the finance minister admitted in his speech that Ontario was hit earlier, fell harder and fell faster than anywhere else,” Hudak continued.

Today’s projected deficit – the largest increase in Ontario’s history – comes in the wake of the largest sales tax grab in Ontario’s history.

“McGuinty does not have a revenue problem, McGuinty has a spending problem,” Barrett said. “We’ve been living high on the hog.”

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