Ford budget priorities are 'booze and branding' while kids will suffer: Horwath
Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said the 2019 Ontario budget 'is all about putting people first'
Finance Minister Vic Fedeli and Ontario's Conservative government delivered its first budget yesterday.
They say it's a reasonable path towards ending the deficit and includes some small increases to healthcare and education funding. The government pledged up to $1 billion over the next five years to create 30,000 new child-care spaces.
While some say the budget doesn't have the deep spending cuts that were predicted, that's not the way Andrea Horwath, leader of the NDP, Ontario's official opposition sees it.
She spoke with the CBC's Conrad Collaco about what this budget will mean for most of the people in the province. You can read an abridged and edited version of the interview or listen to the full audio interview by hitting the play button above.
Was there anything in this budget that you liked?
Not really. Part of the challenge we have was that we've got a government claiming they've put all this spending in place. They're spending all right. They're just not spending on anything that will make a difference for families. They're not spending on us.
It's a budget that makes deep cuts to children and community and social services, cuts to education, health care. It's not going to help families build a better life here. They've spent billions of dollars on accounting changes to the Fair Hydro Plan that the Liberals had and for pensions but every day families aren't going to get the support they need.
Our children are gong to suffer. Students are going to suffer. They've got a budget that has a lot of cuts. Indigenous Affairs is going to be cut by 50 per cent. These are huge cuts.- Andrea Horwath, Ontario NDP
What did you make of the announcement in the budget that there would be $1 billion for Hamilton for LRT from McMaster University through downtown Hamilton to Eastgate Square?
I was pleased the government reinforced the commitment they made a couple weeks ago in Hamilton for the LRT project. What's frustrating for a lot of Hamiltonians is that we have this infrastructure for the GO system to Toronto and back and we're not getting any augmentation of service.
We've got the North End station on James North and we've got the station at Hughson and Hunter and we're not getting extra trains, all-day, two-way GO to Hamilton and I'm sure Niagara is not happy with that either. There's no sign in the budget the government's going to make any attempts to increase our service.
Every budget identifies a government's priorities. What did this budget tell you are the priorities of the Ford government?
It looks like the priorities of the Ford government are booze and branding. Lots and lots of changes to alcohol consumption opportunities. They're turning the whole province blue. Apparently, we're going to have Doug Ford's ego on our license plates with the blue license plates. That's going to cause a lot of rear ending accidents, I think, in our province.
These are not the priorities of everyday families, especially with the alcohol. I like to have a fun time like anyone else. This government didn't look at the other half of the equation. There are many people who have had serious losses to their families, lost loved ones because of drunk driving. This government has made no attempt to balance that off against their announcements on making alcohol more available.
Where are you seeing the biggest cuts in this budget?
There's a billion dollars out of children and community and social services. The most vulnerable people are going to feel the pain. The health budget, although it's increasing by 1.6 per cent, health inflation costs are about 5.3 per cent. There's a huge cut in health care. In education, a 1.2 per cent increase is what they are saying but they are pegging inflation at 1.9 per cent. So, that is a cut to education.
We already know they've announced they will cut teachers and educators in the classroom. We're going to lose teachers and adults in schools and lose programming like tech and the arts for our kids. The most vulnerable are going to suffer. Our children are going to suffer. Students are going to suffer.
They've got a budget that has a lot of cuts. Indigenous Affairs is going to be cut by 50 per cent. These are huge cuts.
What the government is not saying is the reason their budget looks like it's spending even more than the last government is because they are spending money on pensions and the Fair Hydro Plan. That doesn't help anybody with building a great life here.
What do this budget tell us about the direction the PC's will go over the next three years?
They're showing clearly that they are not interested in the things that help everyday families. They don't believe it's their job to help you to get your kids through college or university, for example, or make sure you can afford your child care if you are a family starting out or make sure you have a health care system that provides the quality and dignity of care that you deserve. Instead, you're going to see more people in hallways with less care.
You're going to see privatization in our health care system. Now they're privatizing the public health system, by the looks of it. For the next couple of years things are going to get harder for everyday families and the government is not going to do anything to make life better and focus on the things that matter most like our health care system and our education system, like making sure we are tackling climate change. None of these things are a priority for this government. People are going to suffer as a result.
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