One day after tabling his budget, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty engaged in some tough talk with his Ontario counterpart, urging the province carefully manage its finances.
Speaking in Toronto, Flaherty expressed reservations about the management of Ontario's economy under Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.
"Quite frankly, Ontario's spending mismanagement is a problem for the entire country because of the size of the economy in the province," Flaherty said Friday.
"I hope that they are able to manage their spending better than they have over the past eight or nine years."
He added that while he wishes Ontario well, "they certainly have no one to blame but themselves."
Duncan, who tabled his own budget earlier this week with a $15.3-billion deficit, had criticized the federal budget Thursday.
"They've changed their target balance date four times now," Duncan told a news conference Thursday. "They've missed their deficit targets twice."
"Penny wise and pound foolish. That's Jim," Duncan told The Globe and Mail.
That did not sit well with the federal finance minister, who had his own criticisms in return.
"I think they have a long way to go in terms of managing their budget," Flaherty said.
McGuinty attempted to play peacemaker during a news conference in Ottawa Friday morning.
"I think we're always at our best when we work together . . . and I think we just need to find some common ground. What I say in response to Minister Flaherty is: ‘Let's find some common ground,'" McGuinty said.
The premier did express worry about the economic effect of Flaherty's plan to reduce Ottawa's public service through layoffs and attrition.
"That's going to affect families. It's one thing to talk about it in the abstract in terms of numbers or as a piece of paper, or to read it on a line, but ultimately it's going to be felt by families on the ground," he said.
One Ontario cabinet minister suggested Flaherty's comments were really about provincial politics.
"Coming off another bad week, Ontario's PCs called in Jim to fight (Progressive Conservative Leader) Tim (Hudak's) battles. They must have concluded that Tim wasn't up to the task,"
Brad Duguid, minister of economic development and innovation, said in a statement.
Flaherty's wife, Christine Elliott, is a Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario opposition.
Ontario's budget projects a return to balanced books by 2017-18. Ottawa projects a $21.1-billion deficit for next year and a plan to balance the books by 2015-2016.
