Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is questioning the Ford government’s priorities after Government House Leader Paul Calandra said that upcoming renovations for Queen’s Park will cost taxpayers at least $1 billion.

“It’s hard to believe that bureaucrats can’t find a way to renovate Queen’s Park without spending soaring into the billions,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “Some renovations might be necessary, but a billion dollars is a huge amount of money and Ontario simply can’t afford to spend money it doesn’t have.”

To put a billion dollars in context, here are other examples of what it could pay for:

• Cut the gas tax by 5 cents per litre for a year
• Pay the salary for 12,000 nurses for one year
• Build 32 new schools
• Pay the property taxes of 186,000 families with homes valued at $500,000 in the city of Ottawa for one year
• Eliminate the Ontario Health Premium for 20 per cent of Ontario taxpayers
• Have a two week provincial sales tax holiday

The CTF believes the Financial Accountability Office should release an independent cost estimate of the renovations before any money goes out the door.

“If the government saved even a fraction of the renovation costs, hundreds of millions of dollars could be used pay down debt or provide tax relief,” said Goldberg. “Ontario is the most indebted sub-national government in the world. The government needs to look for every possible way to save money.”