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Southpoint Sun September 4, 2013

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Canadian Taxpayers Federation Ontario director Candice Malcolm displays the Ontario Debt Clock during a Tuesday, Aug. 27 visit in Leamington. The province’s debt increases by $372 per second and nearly $1 billion per month. (SUN Photo)

By Bryan Jessop In the time it takes you to read this sentence, Ontario’s provincial debt will have increased by about $1,500. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation paid a visit to Leamington with the Ontario Debt Clock, an electronic, enclosed trailer-mounted screen with a digital readout displaying the province’s financial debt. The non-partisan organization’s 27th day of the 28-day tour began in Windsor on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 27 before making a late morning stop in Leamington en route to Chatham that afternoon. The clock pulled up in front of the office of Chatham-Kent-Essex Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls, next door to Leamington’s Erie Street North municipal office. The number showing on the clock as it arrived at its Leamington destination was about $257,567,000,000 — a number that CTF Ontario director Candice Malcolm said will climb to $272.8 billion by the end of the fiscal year in late March of 2014. “It’s (the clock) a visual representation of the fiscal situation we’re in here in Ontario,” Malcolm said. “This is the sixth straight year of debt for the Ontario Liberals, who have doubled the provincial debt in 10 years.” The 56 communities visited across Ontario in just under a month carried the clock a distance of more than 4,300 km. On it’s final day of the tour — Wednesday, Aug. 28 — the clock started off in Hamilton before making its final stop at Queen’s Park in Toronto. “We try to hit as many communities as possible,” said Malcolm. “It’s about trying to raise awareness and get people involved with a visual reminder.” Ontario’s debt is higher than any other province both in total and on a per capita basis. The total — forecast to stand at $11.7 billion for the 2013 bud-

get alone — is roughly the same as the other provinces combined, despite Ontario being home to just over a third of all Canadians. Malcolm noted that California, portrayed by U.S. media as being on the verge of collapse under massive state debt, carries a per capita debt of about $5,000 per person. For Ontario, the debt per resident is quickly approaching $20,000. “The CTF submits recommendations to the Ontario government every year,” she explained. “A part of the solution will be tough medicine while some of it will be common sense. Unfortunately, many politicians tend to brush off debt like it’s not an important issue. The government says 60 per cent of our recommendations are being implemented, but we’re not seeing things like wage freezes.” At the current rates of both spending and generating revenue, Ontario’s government will add another $30 billion to the province’s debt for the year 2018. Premier Katherine Wynne has announced intentions to balance the budget by 2017-18, but Malcolm and the CTF are not optimistic. “We don’t think there’s a revenue problem. Over the last 10 years, it has increased by $209 billion,” Malcolm said. “It’s reckless spending. Fifty per cent of the last Ontario budget was spent on wages. Some of that money was spent on the salaries of important services, but much of it goes to benefits, packages and pensions within the huge, bloated bureaucracies of every provincial department. The government is handing out pensions that we’ll never see in the private sector — companies would be going out of business if they did.” Per month, Ontario’s debt increases by nearly $1 billion or the equivalent of $372 per second. The province’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by an estimated 1.5 per cent in 2013 while spending increases (Continued on Page 2)

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