When the minority Liberal government unveiled its draft provincial budget last week, the document lasted barely a day before being trashed: the opposition parties refused to support the government, and a snap—though widely anticipated—election was called.
Ontarians will go to the polls on June 12, but they already know a great deal about what the Liberals will be running on: that short-lived budged doubles as a convenient campaign platform. And one of its centrepiece proposals is a major employment initiative. The other parties will likely follow with their own jobs-creation strategies (we'll cover those as they are released) but in the meantime, here are the highlights of the Liberal proposal.
The Liberal government's plan centres on a $2.5 billion "jobs and prosperity fund," a new 10-year initiative that will focus on helping businesses develop internationally, and become more productive. It will also include grants to help attract new major businesses to Toronto. The money will be allocated to several sectors, including $40 million a year for food and beverage manufacturing and $20 million over four years for the increased acquisition of health products. This will be combined with other initiatives, like ongoing efforts to establish a cooperative capital markets regulator (so far British Columbia and the federal government have joined the talks).
Though NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced that her party would be voting against the budget, she specified that this reflected a general distrust of the Liberal government rather than objections to the budget itself, which is widely regarded as NDP-friendly. For their part the Progressive Conservatives characterized the Liberal plan as "corporate welfare" and say they will create jobs by lowering payroll and corporate taxes.
Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Finance