Toronto: Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) Ontario Director John Williamson reacted today to Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty's democratic reform plan for Ontario.

"Unlike some of the other five platform planks released by the Liberals, this election document is innovative and strikes a reform-minded theme to modernize Ontario's democratic system," Mr. Williamson said today. "Mr. McGuinty's plan is jam-packed with some very good, and long overdue, ideas to make government more open and more responsive to voters. He has clearly raised the bar by including policy ideas that status quo parties normally avoid."

The focus of the Ontario Liberal plan, entitled Government That Works For You, is to open government by:
 

• Establishing fixed four-year election dates;
   
• Expanding the powers of the Provincial Auditor to scrutinize the spending of arms-length agencies funded by taxpayers;
   
• Banning partisan government advertising;
   
• Empowering lawmakers to question the heads of government-owned agencies, and disclosing the annual payments to all individuals sitting on agencies, boards and commissions;
   
• Making all government agencies subject to the Freedom of Information Act;
   
• Docking the salary of any cabinet minister who repeatedly fails to attend Question Periods;
   
• Holding a referendum on voting reform; and
   
• Including all campaign spending as election expenses.

"These are taxpayer-friendly proposals that, if implemented, will make government more accountable and begin to restore confidence in our public institutions," Williamson noted. "However, we have difficulties with the proposal to name Citizens' Juries to review policy proposals. We currently elect 103 MPPs to examine policy ideas and vote on them. This is an unnecessary duplication of the proper role of elected officials and it risks increasing the power of special interests by appointing an unelected body to weigh in on public policy."

The manifesto also re-commits the Liberal party to live within their means by balancing budgets and not adding to the debt. Moreover, Mr. McGuinty has again promised to abide by the Taxpayer Protection Act, an initiative spearheaded by the CTF to hold politicians accountable. This law, passed by the legislature in 1999, prohibits governments from raising most taxes and deferring scheduled tax cuts without first holding a province-wide referendum. "The Liberals are promising to subject themselves to the Taxpayer Protection Act and reform how the Ontario government operates. That is good news for Ontario taxpayers," Williamson concluded.