Ontario needs a fiscal conservative party. Doug Ford’s PCs aren’t it

To say Doug Ford spends like Kathleen Wynne is unfair to the former Liberal premier. Mr. Ford , notionally a Progressive Conservative premier, lambasted Ms. Wynne as an out-of-control spender in the 2018 election campaign. But since then, he has outstripped his Liberal predecessor.released last week, the Ford government claimed that the deeper deficit this year, and disappearing surplus next year, resulted from revenues softening as high interest rates bite into economic growth.

In fact, Mr. Ford is set to become the biggest spender in modern Ontario history, based on the percentage of provincial gross domestic product taken up by program spending. As the accompanying chart shows, the Ontario government forecasts that program spending will equal 17.89 per cent of GDP, edging ahead of the 17.87 per cent figure for the McGuinty government in 2010.

Provincial spending is forecast to grow more slowly than the economy in the next two fiscal years, according to the forecasts in the budget. But Mr. Ford’s government – much like the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa – has developed a habit of revising its spending upward with each successive budget. Projected surpluses beckon in the future, but don’t materialize in the present.

A case in point is the cut to fuel taxes, which will cost Ontario $945-million in the current fiscal year. Similar subsidies to electricity bills will cost $7.3-billion. Of course, the Ford government says those subsidies to energy consumption are meant to reduce the cost of living.

Government Spending Ontario Ford Deficit Growth Spender NDP Kathleen Wynne Liberal

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