TORONTO - Ontario's governing Liberals will deliver the province's pre-election budget on March 22, just three days after the federal budget is introduced, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara announced Thursday.
While the Liberals have yet to balance the Ontario budget since inheriting a $5.6 billion deficit from the previous Conservative government when they were elected in 2003, it's clearly something they would like to do heading toward the Oct. 10 election.
Sorbara has downplayed expectations he will forecast a balanced budget for 2007-08, warning that the province's economy has been growing more slowly than expected.
"We're going to continue to manage the province's finances prudently, particularly in this period of more moderate economic growth,'' Sorbara said in a statement.
Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak said Thursday that the Liberals have $2.2 billion they could use to balance the books immediately -- a $1 billion reserve and another $1.2 billion in so-called contingency funds.
"These are slush funds that they try to get out the door before the magic date of March 31, the end of the fiscal year,'' said Hudak.
"I expect what we'll see is a lot of last-minute, mad money spending in all kinds of promises to everybody, because after all, it's an election year.''
The Finance Ministry does not expect it will need to use a $1 billion reserve fund before the end of fiscal 2006-07, so it will automatically be applied to the deficit, which is expected to come in at just under $1 billion.
"Our fourth budget will build on our plan to restore the province's financial health,'' said Sorbara. "As with previous budgets, our overall goal will be to strengthen Ontario's economic fundamentals.''
After the Liberals lost a Toronto byelection last month to the New Democrats, who waged a populist campaign to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, Sorbara said he had a "poverty agenda'' and said the province's most vulnerable residents would be a focus of the budget.
