Taxpayers get short shrift in Throne Speech

• Less value for money
  
• No tax relief
  
• More corporate welfare

Toronto: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reacted today to the provincial government's Throne Speech delivered to the legislature this afternoon at Queen's Park.

"This speech provides little if anything for taxpayers. The government talks about how half its ministry budgets have been flatlined or held to the level of inflation, but fails to mention that program spending rose by 4.5% overall last fiscal year - more than twice the level of inflation," said CTF Ontario Director Tasha Kheiriddin. "Meanwhile, personal income tax revenues climbed an astronomical 23% in the same period."

The government also took credit for reducing the provincial deficit from $5.6 to $1.6 billion dollars. "What they failed to say was that they did it on the backs of taxpayers - specifically the health tax, which brought in $1.8 billion last year, and is slated to bring in $2.4 billion this year" said Kheiriddin. "That's not smart government - that's tax and spend government."

The Throne Speech made no mention of tax relief. The government promised to increase quality of service, however, by ensuring that taxpayers will get "a money-back guarantee" for certain services, including birth certificates, if they are not provided in a timely manner.

"This is the most ridiculous political gimmick since the federal Surplus Allocation Act. Taxpayers aren't saving money on this - it's their money to begin with," said Kheiriddin. "If the government were serious about improving the level of public sector service, it would impose penalties on bureaucrats who fail to meet service targets and introduce incentives for those who exceed them - instead of granting year-over-year increases to unionized employees."

The government also claimed that "The Ontario Automobile Investment Strategy has been tremendously successful in attracting- investment in the next generation of jobs" and is "continuing discussions with several companies to build on this success."

"How can the government say this with a straight face Despite getting $100 million in public money, Ford is laying off employees at its Windsor plant," remarked Kheiriddin. "When will this government learn that corporate welfare doesn't work If they really want to boost the economy, they should reinstate the corporate tax cuts that they cancelled when they took office."