Toronto city councillors slammed the provincial government after the finance minister announced Ontario won't use its surplus to help ease the city's budget woes.
"We are not designing a rescue plan for the city of Toronto," Greg Sorbara said Friday, after disclosing the treasury had a surprise $2.3 billion surplus last year, and is expected to have a $750 million surplus this fiscal year, the Toronto Star reported.
The minister also told a press conference outside Queen's Park the Liberals have increased funding to Toronto "by some 500 per cent" since 2003.
"I wish we could say that for every municipality, but we acknowledge the circumstances of the city of Toronto are unique," he said.
But city councillors aren't impressed, and they're demanding the province use its extra funds to give Toronto the help it needs.
"Mr. Sorbara needs to get a crowbar, open his wallet, and give Toronto the resources it needs to be successful,'' Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong told the Star.
The provincial announcement came on the same day city officials released more details on how $100 million in municipal cuts will affect Toronto neighbourhoods.
The city is preparing for an estimated $575 million cash shortfall in 2008.
Sorbara was also criticized for revealing the Liberals never considered using last year's surplus to reduce or eliminate the province's controversial health tax.
The tax -- billed as a "premium'' when the governing Liberals introduced it in 2004, breaking their promise to hold the line on taxes -- contributes $2.5 billion a year to the health-care system.
Conservative Leader John Tory has promised to eliminate the tax if elected -- a move Sorbara said he believes would be a mistake.
"We have not yet seen any numbers from Mr. Tory on how he pretends to be able to pay for his program,'' Sorbara told The Canadian Press.
"I've been in this job long enough to know either we're going back to deficits ... or we're going to see a dramatic reduction in the quality of our health care.''
Tory said he plans to provide a full costing of his election platform before the official campaign begins, which will show eliminating the tax is possible, CP reported.
He said the government's recent flurry of pre-election spending announcements, which add up to nearly $25 billion, make it clear it's far from impossible.
"If you wanted to . . . give some money back to taxpayers who are struggling to keep up, it could be done, and under our government it will be done,'' Tory said.
Tory also questioned how Sorbara could have "found'' an extra $2.3 billion -- more proof, he said, that the public can't trust the government's numbers.
"Every time this guy who claims to be a finance minister puts on a new pair of pants he seems to find $2 billion,'' said Tory. "I can assure you, having run a large organization before, you don't just find $2 billion.''
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said Premier Dalton McGuinty is bribing voters with their own money in the weeks before the Oct. 10 election, CP reported.
"For four long years, Mr. McGuinty deliberately misled Ontario families about the province's finances so he could use our tax dollars to finance a pre-election vote-buying spree,'' Hampton said in a statement.
But Sorbara said Ontario -- like Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan -- simply outperformed its projections and there's nothing funny about the numbers.
He added that the auditor general reviewed the figures and said everything was in order.
After using last year's surplus to pay down its debts, the province's accumulated deficit stands at $107 billion.
With files from The Canadian Press
