Leroy N. Soetoro
2013-05-05 04:53:24 UTC
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/05/01/terence-corcoran-ontario-
liberals-last-power-trip/
Thursdays Ontario budget should be the last gasp of the McGuinty
Liberals in a province that needs a premier who can say more about
provincial affairs than I didnt have access to those financial
parameters.
The Ontario Liberal budget Thursday could be the last gasp of a decade-
long governance disaster. It certainly should be. The current premier,
Kathleen Wynne, was first elected as part of Dalton McGuintys Liberal
sweep of the 2003 election. Ms. Wynnes current trick is to distance
herself from the past ten years of mismanagement, policy bungles,
grotesque waste, pro-union pandering, tax-gouging, big spending green
dirigisme.
As Ms. Wynne put it during questioning the other day over the rocketing
cost of the Liberal governments cancellation of two electricity-
generating plants, I didnt have access to those financial parameters.
She wasnt told. Didnt ask. The cost of the power plant deals is now up
to $600-million, money that served no purpose, vapourized for political
reasons.
When it comes to the financial parameters of 10 years of bungled McGuinty
statism that spans electricity, medical spending, green belts and transit,
Ms. Wynne has a lot of dodging to do. She apparently wasnt there for the
billion-dollar air ambulance crack up, the billion-dollar e-health
meltdown. Nobody told her that all the spending up 60% over the McGuinty
years would lead to a fiscal mess, even though she voted on the budgets
that delivered the deficits that now loom for years to come. She never
saw the financial parameters of the Green Energy Act and the cost of wind
and solar to taxpayers and ratepayers. Kathleen Wynne missed it all.
As Parker Gallant and others have documented over the years in this
Ontarios Power Trip series, the $600-million cost of the gas plant
cancellations is also mere kilowatts of waste compared with the
megawattage imbedded in the green energy extravaganza, a staggering
explosion of misguided investment that now threatens to raise Ontario
electricity rates to the highest in North America. At the same time, as
Mr. Gallant outlines elsewhere on this page, the green energy program is
eviscerating Ontario Power Generation, the government-owned electric
producer whose value is being eroded by billions of dollars.
Not only has Ms. Wynne missed the parameters of McGuintyism, she now seems
poised to do the unthinkable, which is to say she appears set to do it all
again.
Indications that Ms. Wynne is another McGuinty have emerged in the usual
pre-budget leaks and scuttlebutt. Her new finance minister, Charles
Sousa, has announced the government will cave into NDP demands for a 15%
reduction in auto insurance rates. Its a page right out of the populist
playbook run by McGuinty, who promised to cut auto insurance rates by 10%,
and did sort of for a brief period. The idea that the government will be
able to issue a directive to insurance companies to cut rates by 15% is
ludicrous. Some reform of the heavily regulated sector is likely useful,
but the government is saidby the Toronto Starto be planning an across-
the-board cut in insurance company profits.
The McGuinty Liberals raised corporate taxes, negotiated union-friendly
contracts with civil servants, gave unions more power, brought in transit
policies that promoted urban sprawl, imposed ethanol mandates. Ms Wynne
promises more of the same.
On transit, she appears to be willing to engage in a round of tax
increases,and bring in new taxes, to fund pubic transit expansion in the
Toronto area. Another area that is destined to receive the same old dodgy
policy moves is health care. A $300-million funding of home care related
services is a pre-budget announcement that suggests cuts are coming in
other areas that will need to be offset by Ontarians who will have resort
to home care as the alternative.
But the biggest issue facing the province, aside from the dominant crisis
surrounding spending and deficits over the next four years, remains
electricity policy. At some point the Premier of Ontariowhether it is
Ms. Wynne or her successor following an electionwill have to face the
fact that the provinces economy is at some risk of being priced out of
the world market. Ontario power consumers are also being forced to pay
high power rates for electricity that should be available at much lower
prices.
With this Thursdays budget, the stage may well be set for a new
government with a new leader who has more to say about the state of the
provinces fiscal and policy situation than I didnt have access to those
financial parameters.
--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.
Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.
Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.
Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---
liberals-last-power-trip/
Thursdays Ontario budget should be the last gasp of the McGuinty
Liberals in a province that needs a premier who can say more about
provincial affairs than I didnt have access to those financial
parameters.
The Ontario Liberal budget Thursday could be the last gasp of a decade-
long governance disaster. It certainly should be. The current premier,
Kathleen Wynne, was first elected as part of Dalton McGuintys Liberal
sweep of the 2003 election. Ms. Wynnes current trick is to distance
herself from the past ten years of mismanagement, policy bungles,
grotesque waste, pro-union pandering, tax-gouging, big spending green
dirigisme.
As Ms. Wynne put it during questioning the other day over the rocketing
cost of the Liberal governments cancellation of two electricity-
generating plants, I didnt have access to those financial parameters.
She wasnt told. Didnt ask. The cost of the power plant deals is now up
to $600-million, money that served no purpose, vapourized for political
reasons.
When it comes to the financial parameters of 10 years of bungled McGuinty
statism that spans electricity, medical spending, green belts and transit,
Ms. Wynne has a lot of dodging to do. She apparently wasnt there for the
billion-dollar air ambulance crack up, the billion-dollar e-health
meltdown. Nobody told her that all the spending up 60% over the McGuinty
years would lead to a fiscal mess, even though she voted on the budgets
that delivered the deficits that now loom for years to come. She never
saw the financial parameters of the Green Energy Act and the cost of wind
and solar to taxpayers and ratepayers. Kathleen Wynne missed it all.
As Parker Gallant and others have documented over the years in this
Ontarios Power Trip series, the $600-million cost of the gas plant
cancellations is also mere kilowatts of waste compared with the
megawattage imbedded in the green energy extravaganza, a staggering
explosion of misguided investment that now threatens to raise Ontario
electricity rates to the highest in North America. At the same time, as
Mr. Gallant outlines elsewhere on this page, the green energy program is
eviscerating Ontario Power Generation, the government-owned electric
producer whose value is being eroded by billions of dollars.
Not only has Ms. Wynne missed the parameters of McGuintyism, she now seems
poised to do the unthinkable, which is to say she appears set to do it all
again.
Indications that Ms. Wynne is another McGuinty have emerged in the usual
pre-budget leaks and scuttlebutt. Her new finance minister, Charles
Sousa, has announced the government will cave into NDP demands for a 15%
reduction in auto insurance rates. Its a page right out of the populist
playbook run by McGuinty, who promised to cut auto insurance rates by 10%,
and did sort of for a brief period. The idea that the government will be
able to issue a directive to insurance companies to cut rates by 15% is
ludicrous. Some reform of the heavily regulated sector is likely useful,
but the government is saidby the Toronto Starto be planning an across-
the-board cut in insurance company profits.
The McGuinty Liberals raised corporate taxes, negotiated union-friendly
contracts with civil servants, gave unions more power, brought in transit
policies that promoted urban sprawl, imposed ethanol mandates. Ms Wynne
promises more of the same.
On transit, she appears to be willing to engage in a round of tax
increases,and bring in new taxes, to fund pubic transit expansion in the
Toronto area. Another area that is destined to receive the same old dodgy
policy moves is health care. A $300-million funding of home care related
services is a pre-budget announcement that suggests cuts are coming in
other areas that will need to be offset by Ontarians who will have resort
to home care as the alternative.
But the biggest issue facing the province, aside from the dominant crisis
surrounding spending and deficits over the next four years, remains
electricity policy. At some point the Premier of Ontariowhether it is
Ms. Wynne or her successor following an electionwill have to face the
fact that the provinces economy is at some risk of being priced out of
the world market. Ontario power consumers are also being forced to pay
high power rates for electricity that should be available at much lower
prices.
With this Thursdays budget, the stage may well be set for a new
government with a new leader who has more to say about the state of the
provinces fiscal and policy situation than I didnt have access to those
financial parameters.
--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.
Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.
Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.
Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---