So Finance Minister Dwight Duncan brings down the Ontario budget today. What to expect? Wage freezes of some sort for teachers and doctors. Pension reform. Nickel and diming fees like the already announced increases in car registration. The problem for Ontario is that the Drummond Report predicted that the already $16 billion deficit will double in five years if no changes are made. So just to maintain a $16 billion deficit will be difficult.
Tax increases, probably not but as mentioned in the previous paragraph, fees will go up. The corporate tax will be frozen for a while.
Anything crazy? Depends on your definition of crazy and whether you're a public or private sector worker.
Will an election come out of this budget. Probably not, as the opposition parties will let McGuinty deal with the fallout from pissed off public sector workers.
Should be interesting in any case. What I am most curious about is predictions about the deficit beyond this fiscal year. Those numbers could be scary.
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