here’s another reality check from the Toronto Sun this morning

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/17/drummond-offers-no-real-relief

And Moira MacDonald’s column re: Drummond and education recommendations here. MacDonald is much more in tune and in line to what most parents feel IMO.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/17/fiscal-concerns-for-education

I guess we will all see soon won’t we. Drummond’s assumptions are all wrong on interest rates (he has been wrong for years on this) on the long term bonds, on the American economy etc. Let us keep in mind that spending had nothing to do with the deficit. The budget was basically in balance before the 2007 Wall St meltdown and recession.

The $16 billion deficit is exactly the size of the Harris-Eves-McGuinty tax cuts since 1995.

PC = low tax, low service
NDP=high tax, high service
Lib = low tax high service = deficit

It is #3 that doesn’t work in the long run. You actually need to tax for what you want to spend.

http://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2012/02/14/ten-points-on-recession-deficits-and-austerity-in-ontario/

Regardless, Doug, McGuinty should not have gone on a spending spree—he spent his way into this deficit and what about the huge debt he’s managed to accumulate?  He knew he was piling up a huge debt, and it’s more than double the second largest in Ontario’s history.  The Liberals were not victims of circumstance:  our financial mess was mostly crafted by them.
Where was the media during the election campaigns?  They should have been on the politicians’ cases, hammering away at them to begin talking about Ontario’s dire financial situation.  It’s only now that they’re making a lot of noise.  I find this strange…

Doug, raising taxes as the solution being called by the public sector unions, is maintaining the inefficiencies found in the public sector. Drummond’s report is all about locating the inefficiencies based on the outcomes. Outcomes, public sector unions ignores because it does not serve the public sector unions best interests to point them out, nor are the unions concern about the quality of services being received, in relationship to the outcomes.

Efficient operations of the public sector, is the enemy of public sector unions for good reason. Inefficient operations of the public sector, is the line that the union brass manipulates at contract negotiation times, and in between contract times, to focus on the inputs, and not the outputs, which includes outcomes, quality. The public education system is one such beast, the focus is always on the inputs entering the education system, and barely a glance on the outputs.

Tax cuts nor tax increases will be able to slay the deficit. But looking at the inefficiencies and expenditures, will be able to slay the deficit. If not, Ontario may gain the new name of being the rust bucket of Confederation.

Bev,

Public spending did not cause the deficit, the recession caused the deficit. We were basically in balance before 2007.

Harper also has a massive deficit. He was handed a surplus by Martin. Still Harper did not cause the deficit, the recession caused his deficit as well.

Efficiencies is an interesting word Nancy. Let me translate it for you in the context of government.

It means service cuts, lost jobs, longer wait times.

The public sends the government 2 messages every day of the week. Cut my taxes and improve my services.

Yes, Doug, and I’ll have you know that guns don’t kill people; people do. 

Neither government you mention were fiscally responsible when they saw the financial meltdown coming, so rather than exercising restraint, they continued spending.

Doug, you need a refreshing course, that are offer for free by the MITs and other universities such as Open University, on all things accounting, economics and other such business topics, on terms such as inefficiencies.

Or one can read all about it, on the front pages of the European countries. Or would the public sector unions like to be in the same fixed as their European counterparts. Another warning from Drummond, but is ignored by the public sector unions.. .

Yes bev that theory is out there on the extreme right that all western governments should have done nothing like herbert Hoover in 1929 when the wheels came off capitalism. Instead they spent money federally, provincially and internationally to save the economy. GM Government Motors was saved and is now the world’s leader again.

Harper and McGuinty spent money to save the economy of Ontario and Canada. Now they have big deficits. Duncan is already seeing that Horwath is correct that corporate tax cuts need to be cancelled first.

The important point for everyone to understand is that public spending on health, education and other services did not cause the debt. The spending to save the economy (and a huge # of private companies) caused the deficit.

Now it is time for those who caused the crisis, business, to pay back through taxes, the $16B in tax cuts we have seen since 1995 in Ontario.

We are either going to have a Liberal-Tory agreement to do Drummond or a Liberal-NDP agreement to do taxes. I suspect the latter is coming. Too bad for the Liberals they are one seat short of doing it on their own.

Doug, you are a fount of political knowledge! Your prediction has the ring of truth. It frightens me, though, because my guess is that raising taxes will just accelerate Ontario’s decline, as jobs diminish and more people move out of the province. I hope you’re wrong, and if it turns out you’re right, I hope I’m wrong.