Hey it won an election for the Liberals did it not? It shows how rarely we hear a good budget read in this country. It also shows how ignorant those people are who go on and on about the deficit. Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s Ontario budget of May 1 and again of July 14 is a winner. He needs to remember that.
Being a banker by trade Sousa does worry about balancing the books. What he needs to understand is that it is not the average citizen who got us into the current financial doldrums. It was bankers. Sure, they were American bankers that started the entire mess but they were still bankers. If it had not been for our Canadian bankers’ innate sense of caution and conservatism we would have been right into sub-prime mortgages like the American banks.
But here we are more than five years after the American financial bubble burst still struggling to move the economy forward and to create more worthwhile jobs for people in Ontario. While it was the tried and true infrastructure investment that carried us this far, we need better thinking for the future.
Charles has got to think outside the banker’s box. He has to realize that Ontario does not have to compete with other states, provinces, countries to be the cheapest. All we have to do is continue to be the best—the best educated work force, the best environment, with the best medical care and the best policed and peaceful communities and the best place for work, recreation and to raise a family. We have got a lot going for us in Ontario and Charles has to realize that people are more than willing to pay their share in maintaining it.
And he should not forget there are financial opportunities for the taking. Just because Toronto Council is dysfunctional is no excuse for Toronto not to have the casinos it needs to offer a complete range of attractions for tourists. Charles needs to remember that gambling is legal in Ontario—when it is run by the province—and there is no excuse for some places to not have the full range of services.
Charles also needs to understand simple opportunities such as selling beer in convenience stores. Who gives a damn what the blue stocking crowd think? There is far more tax revenue for the province from convenience stores than from those smelly beer stores.
There is a world of opportunities for the province to balance the books. It will happen if we just grow up and take the opportunities available to us.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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