Post by Dean Robinson on Mar 26, 2008 15:32:42 GMT -5
Wish lists for the Ontario budget
IQP readers suggest what the Ontario government should do for Ontarians.
www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature8.cfm?REF=172
Dateline: Monday, March 24, 2008
by Inside Queen's Park
INSIDE QUEEN'S PARK
Vol 21 No 06
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS
March 19, 2008
Less than a week before it is tabled, the 2008 Ontario Budget has been somewhat overshadowed by the sharp fiscal slanging match between Parliament Hill and Queen's Park. Ontarians could be forgiven for turning off the increasingly snide and peevish "Punch and Judy"-style exchanges between federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Premier Dalton McGuinty, with assists from provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and the sharp-tongued Sandra Pupatello.
Post-secondary institutions call for investment of $440M to hire 5,500 tenure-stream academics to bring staff-student ratios to the Canadian average.
As this week's market shocks and the constant drumbeat of manufacturing lay-offs remind Ontarians, Duncan's decisions on cutting taxes, bolstering public services and responding to manufacturing challenges may well become the most important of the five annual spending plans that Team McGuinty has yet presented. The spectre of have-not status arising in the hostile speechifying has helped ensure an unusually high degree of Premier's Office oversight on this particular budget.
Once again, our readers offered suggestions about what they want and expect to see in Budget 2008:
Those who care for the vulnerable are obliged to press for additional funds — as in the pleas submitted by the association representing Ontario Children's Aid Societies to implement the child welfare transformation agenda, initiated back in 2004, and address changes called for in the associated child welfare funding model, developed in 2005. (School trustees could relate.) Child welfare workloads are at the heart of key challenges. The 2006 investigation by the Auditor General called for risk assessments of decisions by front-line staff, but to start these without funding would impose service reductions and thus elevate risk to children. OACAS notes that deficits in 2006-07 were close to $10M and fears a $60M funding shortfall for 2007-08.
The Railway Association of Canada, not downhearted by the McGuinty-Flaherty tussle, wants a partnership agreement between levels of government and the short-line rail industry to renew basic infrastructure. RAC is also pressing for adoption here of the low-density rail line property tax credit applied everywhere else.
Advocates of cooperative housing want affordable housing to be a cornerstone of the government's poverty-reduction strategy. The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada wants funds to maintain social housing stock over the long-term, and a start to reversal of the social housing download.
Ontario's professoriate calls for investment of $440M to hire 5,500 tenure-stream academics to bring staff-student ratios to the Canadian average. The $135M infrastructure investment needs to be nearly tripled to match the government's Reaching Higher plan.
The Ontario Environment Industry Association is pressing for substantially boosted funding for the Environment ministry tied to a commitment to outcome-based regulatory reform that protects the public and reduces barriers to business innovation.
Ontario's property and casualty insurers remind the government that Ontario's drivers that buy car insurance outnumber income tax payers. Saluting the government for creating a stable auto insurance regime that has lowered rates, the Insurance Bureau of Canada also seeks a Natural Disaster Reduction Fund to repair infrastructure in an era of climate change and extreme weather. They also want more work on injury prevention through the Ministry of Health Promotion and insurance premium tax reduced to 2 percent.
Ontario's small business owners present seven succinct requests mostly focused on reducing taxes or reforming the tax system — especially the part that forces them to act as tax collectors. They also urge that spending year-end moneys on grants or non-priority programs be ended. If the new commitment to direct annual surpluses to municipal infrastructure is seen as a priority, CFIB is one-for-one before the budget is read.
The Residential & Civil Construction Alliance sees the pre-budget Investing in Ontario Act as delivering "unpredictable funding", not the secure flow of needed infrastructure dollars. Through their report from economist Harry Kitchen (the first prof who tried to teach economics to IQP's publisher!), RCCAO hopes that the government will give Metrolinx the financial latitude and tools to get the job done — read public private partnerships and road tolls.
The Alzheimer Society seeks implementation of the 2007 Throne Speech pledge to bring in a caregiver grant to those looking after elderly family members.
Durham Region Transit is keen to know what funds on top of the earmarked gas tax will flow to support transit growth, directly from Ontario or via Metrolinx.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society is pushing for a comprehensive approach to home care, including expansion of the Aging at Home strategy, and improved provision of specialized medical devices and treatments.
The Canadian Mental Health Association needs a 3 percent increase to contain costs and proposes investments earmarked specifically for mental health services targeted directly at children and youth.
Toronto's Community Social Planning Council and Ontario's Social Planning Network want to see the government get serious about poverty reduction, with effective consultation on targets and priorities, spending to enforce employment standards and acceleration of the Ontario Child Benefit.
This article was first published in Inside Queen's Park, which is published twenty-two times per year by GP Murray Research Limited. IQP offers widely respected analysis of, and insight into, the inner workings of Ontario government and politics. Its contents are copyright and reproduction, in whole or in part by any means without permission of the editor, is strictly forbidden.
IQP readers suggest what the Ontario government should do for Ontarians.
www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature8.cfm?REF=172
Dateline: Monday, March 24, 2008
by Inside Queen's Park
INSIDE QUEEN'S PARK
Vol 21 No 06
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS
March 19, 2008
Less than a week before it is tabled, the 2008 Ontario Budget has been somewhat overshadowed by the sharp fiscal slanging match between Parliament Hill and Queen's Park. Ontarians could be forgiven for turning off the increasingly snide and peevish "Punch and Judy"-style exchanges between federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Premier Dalton McGuinty, with assists from provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and the sharp-tongued Sandra Pupatello.
Post-secondary institutions call for investment of $440M to hire 5,500 tenure-stream academics to bring staff-student ratios to the Canadian average.
As this week's market shocks and the constant drumbeat of manufacturing lay-offs remind Ontarians, Duncan's decisions on cutting taxes, bolstering public services and responding to manufacturing challenges may well become the most important of the five annual spending plans that Team McGuinty has yet presented. The spectre of have-not status arising in the hostile speechifying has helped ensure an unusually high degree of Premier's Office oversight on this particular budget.
Once again, our readers offered suggestions about what they want and expect to see in Budget 2008:
Those who care for the vulnerable are obliged to press for additional funds — as in the pleas submitted by the association representing Ontario Children's Aid Societies to implement the child welfare transformation agenda, initiated back in 2004, and address changes called for in the associated child welfare funding model, developed in 2005. (School trustees could relate.) Child welfare workloads are at the heart of key challenges. The 2006 investigation by the Auditor General called for risk assessments of decisions by front-line staff, but to start these without funding would impose service reductions and thus elevate risk to children. OACAS notes that deficits in 2006-07 were close to $10M and fears a $60M funding shortfall for 2007-08.
The Railway Association of Canada, not downhearted by the McGuinty-Flaherty tussle, wants a partnership agreement between levels of government and the short-line rail industry to renew basic infrastructure. RAC is also pressing for adoption here of the low-density rail line property tax credit applied everywhere else.
Advocates of cooperative housing want affordable housing to be a cornerstone of the government's poverty-reduction strategy. The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada wants funds to maintain social housing stock over the long-term, and a start to reversal of the social housing download.
Ontario's professoriate calls for investment of $440M to hire 5,500 tenure-stream academics to bring staff-student ratios to the Canadian average. The $135M infrastructure investment needs to be nearly tripled to match the government's Reaching Higher plan.
The Ontario Environment Industry Association is pressing for substantially boosted funding for the Environment ministry tied to a commitment to outcome-based regulatory reform that protects the public and reduces barriers to business innovation.
Ontario's property and casualty insurers remind the government that Ontario's drivers that buy car insurance outnumber income tax payers. Saluting the government for creating a stable auto insurance regime that has lowered rates, the Insurance Bureau of Canada also seeks a Natural Disaster Reduction Fund to repair infrastructure in an era of climate change and extreme weather. They also want more work on injury prevention through the Ministry of Health Promotion and insurance premium tax reduced to 2 percent.
Ontario's small business owners present seven succinct requests mostly focused on reducing taxes or reforming the tax system — especially the part that forces them to act as tax collectors. They also urge that spending year-end moneys on grants or non-priority programs be ended. If the new commitment to direct annual surpluses to municipal infrastructure is seen as a priority, CFIB is one-for-one before the budget is read.
The Residential & Civil Construction Alliance sees the pre-budget Investing in Ontario Act as delivering "unpredictable funding", not the secure flow of needed infrastructure dollars. Through their report from economist Harry Kitchen (the first prof who tried to teach economics to IQP's publisher!), RCCAO hopes that the government will give Metrolinx the financial latitude and tools to get the job done — read public private partnerships and road tolls.
The Alzheimer Society seeks implementation of the 2007 Throne Speech pledge to bring in a caregiver grant to those looking after elderly family members.
Durham Region Transit is keen to know what funds on top of the earmarked gas tax will flow to support transit growth, directly from Ontario or via Metrolinx.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society is pushing for a comprehensive approach to home care, including expansion of the Aging at Home strategy, and improved provision of specialized medical devices and treatments.
The Canadian Mental Health Association needs a 3 percent increase to contain costs and proposes investments earmarked specifically for mental health services targeted directly at children and youth.
Toronto's Community Social Planning Council and Ontario's Social Planning Network want to see the government get serious about poverty reduction, with effective consultation on targets and priorities, spending to enforce employment standards and acceleration of the Ontario Child Benefit.
This article was first published in Inside Queen's Park, which is published twenty-two times per year by GP Murray Research Limited. IQP offers widely respected analysis of, and insight into, the inner workings of Ontario government and politics. Its contents are copyright and reproduction, in whole or in part by any means without permission of the editor, is strictly forbidden.