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04 | 28 | 2012 VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 20
Wood turning also subject to trends VENTURE PAGE 18
COMMENT PAGE 8
Oda's ethical breach just the latest for tories
www.OBSERVERXTRA.com
voices in unison for kiwanis music fest
The John Mahood Public School choir participated in the Kiwanis Music Festival on Apr. 20. The competition saw 125 individual competitors over the course of the week. See results on page 6.
[colin dewar / the observer]
Voting against provincial budget best course, says MPP JAMES JACKSON Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris says that the province is no further ahead following the budget agreement between the NDP and the Liberal’s ratified by Tuesday’s vote in the Legislature. The New Democrats followed through on a promise not to defeat the minority Liberal government by abstaining from voting on the budget, allowing it to pass 52-37. The PC party had already
said it would vote against the budget after it was unveiled late last month. “We’re in no better shape than we were at any other time, especially moving forward,” Harris said on Wednesday afternoon. The deal between the Liberals and NDP was struck following revisions to the budget by the Liberals to appease some of the NDP’s demands, including an agreement to increase Ontario Works payments by one per cent and to provide $20 million in
funding to help rural and northern hospitals achieve more efficiency. The highlight of the deal between the two parties, however, is a so-called “tax the rich” plan that will charge a surtax of two per cent on Ontarians earning more than $500,000 per year, under the condition that the approximately $500 million annualy that would be collected by the tax would go towards paying down the provincial deficit, and that the tax would have a fixed,
five-year lifespan. Harris said that the deal was further proof that Premier Dalton McGuinty couldn’t be trusted, and that the money raised through the surtax was “chump change” compared to the costcutting suggestions made by the Conservatives, such as a mandatory public-sector wage freeze which would save upwards of $2 billion a year. “The Premier said that he wouldn’t raise taxes, and he broke that promise again,” the
MPP added. “The area he should be focusing on is the expenditure side of the ledger. That is where we feel he has the greatest ability to make an impact, and he failed to do so. We don’t have a revenue problem, but he’s always looking for new streams of revenue because he’s a spendaholic.” Harris also doesn’t believe the Conservatives were left out in the cold when it came to negotiating budget | 6
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