waterloowarrior
Mar 22, 2007, 8:02 PM
http://events.streamlogics.net/minfinance/mar22-07/index.asp?lang=english
watch it live
Sorbara delivers balanced budget
Mar 22, 2007 04:02 PM
From Canadian Press
The Ontario Liberals reached out to the province’s most vulnerable residents today in a pre-election budget that earmarked billions for low-income families, promised a raise for minimum wage workers, and boosted social assistance rates.
The centrepiece of the Ontario government’s strategy to target poverty - a five-year, $2.1 billion Ontario Child Benefit for low-income families that will help some 1.3-million children. This July, families with a net income of $20,000 or less will receive a $250 cheque per child, an annual benefit which will increase to $1,100 by 2011.
A raise in the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010 was also among the budget’s promises.
In the Liberals’ final fiscal blueprint before Ontario voters go to the polls Oct. 10, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara outlined $91.2 billion in spending while borrowing from the party’s social policy critics.
The new focus on poverty comes after the Liberals lost three urban byelections to the New Democrats following steady criticism over the minimum wage and for clawing back the National Child Benefit Supplement that Ontario gets from Ottawa.
The province’s healthy economic state - which the government says will produce a $310-million surplus this year and surpluses up to 2010 - means the Liberals can focus on child poverty, Sorbara said.
“The Ontario Child Benefit is a marvellous transformation of the way in which we support low-income families. In short, it takes children off welfare,” Sorbara said.
“We have now left the era of deficits and entered an era of sustainable services. In short, the province’s finances are healthy again.”
While the focus was clearly on poverty, there were overtures made to small business and homeowners.
Business owners will see a $540-million cut to the business education tax rate over the next seven years, reducing rates in 321 municipalities, while homeowners will see changes to the property tax assessment system, including a move to a four-year reassessment cycle.
The Liberals also vowed to accelerate the elimination of the capital tax, from 2012 to 2010.
The budget - that stays on health care and education with increased spending - boosts child care spending by $25 million while using some federal affordable housing cash to create a new $185 million housing allowance for low-income families with children.
Ontario’s disabled and welfare recipients are also getting a raise - payments will go up by two per cent although many were asking for a 10-per-cent increase.
After a sustained campaign by the NDP to immediately raise the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10, Sorbara said the province will phase in three increases starting next March that will bring the hourly rate up to $10.25.
Although political observers said the budget was about taking way the NDP’s ammunition on social policy, Sorbara said this budget isn’t an election blueprint.
“With this budget, we have finally had the opportunity to address the social deficit,” he said. “This budget is not about the election campaign.”
Among those who made relatively little gain in Thursday’s budget - the province isn’t topping up its projected spending for post-secondary education despite extra cash coming from the federal government.
After being virtually shut out of the federal budget, aboriginals didn’t command a high profile in the Ontario budget either, aside from receiving $80 million for off-reserve housing.
Ontario’s struggling manufacturing sector received no new financial aid but got an Ontario Manufacturing Council that will update the government about the state of the sector.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/195013
watch it live
Sorbara delivers balanced budget
Mar 22, 2007 04:02 PM
From Canadian Press
The Ontario Liberals reached out to the province’s most vulnerable residents today in a pre-election budget that earmarked billions for low-income families, promised a raise for minimum wage workers, and boosted social assistance rates.
The centrepiece of the Ontario government’s strategy to target poverty - a five-year, $2.1 billion Ontario Child Benefit for low-income families that will help some 1.3-million children. This July, families with a net income of $20,000 or less will receive a $250 cheque per child, an annual benefit which will increase to $1,100 by 2011.
A raise in the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010 was also among the budget’s promises.
In the Liberals’ final fiscal blueprint before Ontario voters go to the polls Oct. 10, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara outlined $91.2 billion in spending while borrowing from the party’s social policy critics.
The new focus on poverty comes after the Liberals lost three urban byelections to the New Democrats following steady criticism over the minimum wage and for clawing back the National Child Benefit Supplement that Ontario gets from Ottawa.
The province’s healthy economic state - which the government says will produce a $310-million surplus this year and surpluses up to 2010 - means the Liberals can focus on child poverty, Sorbara said.
“The Ontario Child Benefit is a marvellous transformation of the way in which we support low-income families. In short, it takes children off welfare,” Sorbara said.
“We have now left the era of deficits and entered an era of sustainable services. In short, the province’s finances are healthy again.”
While the focus was clearly on poverty, there were overtures made to small business and homeowners.
Business owners will see a $540-million cut to the business education tax rate over the next seven years, reducing rates in 321 municipalities, while homeowners will see changes to the property tax assessment system, including a move to a four-year reassessment cycle.
The Liberals also vowed to accelerate the elimination of the capital tax, from 2012 to 2010.
The budget - that stays on health care and education with increased spending - boosts child care spending by $25 million while using some federal affordable housing cash to create a new $185 million housing allowance for low-income families with children.
Ontario’s disabled and welfare recipients are also getting a raise - payments will go up by two per cent although many were asking for a 10-per-cent increase.
After a sustained campaign by the NDP to immediately raise the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10, Sorbara said the province will phase in three increases starting next March that will bring the hourly rate up to $10.25.
Although political observers said the budget was about taking way the NDP’s ammunition on social policy, Sorbara said this budget isn’t an election blueprint.
“With this budget, we have finally had the opportunity to address the social deficit,” he said. “This budget is not about the election campaign.”
Among those who made relatively little gain in Thursday’s budget - the province isn’t topping up its projected spending for post-secondary education despite extra cash coming from the federal government.
After being virtually shut out of the federal budget, aboriginals didn’t command a high profile in the Ontario budget either, aside from receiving $80 million for off-reserve housing.
Ontario’s struggling manufacturing sector received no new financial aid but got an Ontario Manufacturing Council that will update the government about the state of the sector.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/195013