HawthorneVillager.com

And growing.
These fat cats are leading us down the same path as the U.S and EUrope. The three stooges our fearless leaders living on the backs of the middle class are one of the same. Pigs at the trough. Not one of these morons talked aboutt our debt. Not one.


Here is an article on this issue and many more to come.
Thank god toronto will be salvaged with mayor rob ford.



Not so fast with the champagne, Mr. Premier.
 
Let’s hear from the beer-guzzling mastodon in the victory party room.
The provincial debt.
That woolly mammoth is going to bite us on the ass, and soon.
Our burden of shame will balloon to about $250 billion in this, the eighth year in the reign of Dalton the Red.
The number is so big it defies reality. Our minds do not count that high; $250 billion has the same effect as Uranus being 2.8 billion km away, or 2.66 light hours, give or take a few light minutes.
Doesn’t look that far on a galactic map. Our eyes glaze over. Billions, schmillions.
If we can put the Ontario debt in perspective — maybe someone will DO something about it.
Okay, two words: Greek. Crisis.
I wrote about it this week and was dismayed to find our hole is not comfortably shallower than Greece’s $460 billion. I mean, once you plunge past $200 billion, deep is <i>deep.</i>
Which would you rather fall off? A 460-metre cliff, or a 250-metre cliff? Exactly.
Obviously Greece has other issues, but if our holes are similar, shouldn’t Ontarians fret? Damn right. No one wants to be in Greece’s shoes. Soon they will have to sell the Parthenon to stay afloat.
I wonder how much we could get for the CN Tower.
Let’s see the Ontario debt from other angles.
Since $250 BILLION is hard to fathom, think of Big Macs.
A Toronto Big Mac costs on average $4.19. Now imagine a Godzilla-sized Hamburglar dumped 59,665,871,121 Big Macs on Dundas Square. Farewell, Dundas Square. The pigeons wouldn’t know where to start.
Or think of it this way. A Toronto cabbie would need to drive 155 billion km (at the current rate, $1.61/km) to work off the provincial debt.
That’s to Pluto and back — 15 times! Not including the 25 cents per 31 seconds of wait time if there is heavy traffic around Uranus.
Or: Imagine the Rogers Centre roof as solid gold. Now add another roof and a half. And Jose Bautista’s contract. That ought to cover the debt.
Or: Lay $100 bills end to end. They’re brown and have Sir Robert L. Borden’s face.
To pay off Dalton the Red’s credit card, you will need enough $100s to stretch 381,000 kms. This gives you a choice — paper a path to the moon or go 10 times around the world at the Equator. Yessirree. My accounting friend Derrick Markland, in disbelief, checked it twice.
And that’s $100s! Don’t even think about trying $10s. Next stop, Mars.
Gob-smacked, I call Gregory Thomas, a honcho at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
He gives me several other reasons to head for my cabin in the woods and live on roots and dried berries.
Such as: Ontario’s debt has nearly doubled (by $110 billion) under Dalton McGuinty.
The hole grows $59 million deeper each day, or $685 a second.
Interest payments alone are $10.3 billion a year.
If not for those, half the deficit is wiped out, income taxes drop by 44%, the HST by 4%.
Yet government spending has jumped 64% since McGuinty took power.
If you ran your household finances like that, your spouse would smack you upside the head and you’d be living in the backyard with the dog.
Even a Habs fan can see where this is headed. More broken promises, desperation tax hikes and Greek-style civil service unrest when long overdue cuts become unavoidable. And God protect us from rising rates or Standard and Poor’s.
Make it stop! Make it stop!
“Reminds me of a skydiving lesson I took,” says Thomas, pride of Choiceland, Sask. “I asked the instructor what happens if the reserve doesn’t open.
“He looked at me and said: ‘Kid, sooner or later you’re gonna stop falling.’”
Splat.
Mike Strobel’s column runs Wednesday to Friday, and Sunday.

Cut up the plastic, Dwight Duncan.
This province has been put on credit watch by Moody’s — one of the biggest credit rating agencies in the world.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
As far back as 2008, I can remember asking Duncan why he wasn’t freezing civil service salaries, given the downturn in the economy.
He didn’t.
It’s tempting to say he spent like a drunken sailor, but that’s an insult to sailors.
In eight years, the Liberals have doubled the debt — from $110 to $200 billion.
Spending on government programs has soared more than 70% as they’ve added costly vote-getting frills like all-day kindergarten.
They’ve squandered cash for votes — such as the estimated $1 billion they’ll spend cancelling the unpopular gas-fired power plant in Mississauga. They’ve given massive pay hikes to Liberal-friendly unions.
Now Moody’s has made it official. Worse, they warn our Double A credit rating could be at risk if Duncan doesn’t get the debt under control.
In a press release, analyst Jennifer Wong says the change ,“reflects Moody’s assessment of risks surrounding the province’s ability to meet its medium term fiscal targets given the recent slowdown in provincial economic growth and the resulting risks to the province’s ability to stabilize the recent accumulation in debt.
“The negative outlook on the province reflects the softening economic outlook, Ontario’s growing debt burden, and the extended
timeframe to achieving a balanced budget.”
“While Ontario retains sufficient fiscal flexibility inherent in the institutional framework to adjust its fiscal outcomes, thereby improving its financial position, difficult policy decisions are required.”
And she warned that if the province doesn’t stabilize the debt in the next budget, our good credit rating could be threatened.
“We believe that increased fiscal discipline will be required to sustain debt affordability,” said Wong.
Duncan was on the defensive at a hastily called press conference Thursday night.
“We do have to make some very difficult choices in the coming years to ensure that we stay on the track back to balance,” he told reporters.
“There are a number of challenging decisions ahead. We are going to have to be relentless in our pursuit of transformation to ensure that we make sure that we are focusing our resources on those pivotal areas that are going to be important to job growth in the future.”
He wouldn’t elaborate on just which parts of government will be “transformed,” but insisted it will be a “transformational agenda as opposed to straight across the board cuts.”
Hmm. Methinks I see a pattern emerging here. If the federal Tories cut, it’s “slash and burn.” When provincial Liberals cut, it’s “transformational.”
Tory MPP Monte McNaughton blamed the ratings watch on Liberal incompetence.
“We have a record deficit in Ontario. We have a government that’s doubled the debt since they’ve taken office. Ontario is in bad fiscal shape and we have a larger deficit per capita than in all the other provinces combined.
“It’s just complete incompetence on the part of Premier Dalton McGuinty and Dwight Duncan,” McNaughton said.
The credit watch makes it tough for Duncan to argue with federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty when he talks about the need to cut transfers.
And it all sets the stage for economist Don Drummond’s highly anticipated report on where the province should cut to get the deficit and debt under control. This report justifies unpopular cuts that are in the works.
How does the ad go? Fiscal prudence. Respect for our children and our grandchildren’s financial future – priceless.
There are some things money can’t buy.
For everything else, Dwight Duncan thinks you can put it on the province’s maxed out Mastercard.
Not any more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlUw4RT ... ata_player

Wynne and the liberals want it all pensions everything

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... le1378433/


Taxes and debt equal negative growth , not a recipe I like, liberals really think we are all morons
Liberals are funded by unions whose public sector employees will bankrupt this province

Yet another scandel panqm games executives making 3 4 5 hundred thousand dollars ayr for what ripping us off everystep of the way something has to give and yet this bullddog of a so called premeir and unions continue to hamer away at a good man in hudak all for there personal gain not yours theres , they will raise your taxes gauranteed there is no more money

At the prospects of calling and election, bulldog changed her tune in typical liberal fashion and called for no new taxes really, cmon bulldog , where are you going to get the cash from pensions ? Her bright idea, we will selll bonds great more debt who elects these clowns who?

The Ontario government spent $11.3 billion more this past year than it took in, says Finance Minister Charles Sousa.
Sousa announced the revised 2013-14 deficit‎ — down $400 million fro‎m an expected $11.7 billion — in a speech Thursday to the Canadian Club at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto.

The slight change is due to‎ “prudent management of spending,” he said.

“We continue to beat our fiscal targets in a way that is both fiscally responsible and fair while protecting critical investments and public services for all Ontarians,” the treasurer told about 350 people at the Bay Street luncheon.

But Sousa admitted revenue projections for 2014-15 are $3.5 billion lower than expected, which could make it difficult to meet “short-term” deficit targets.

“Sometimes the economy throws you a curve ball so we do what’s necessary, we step up to the plate,” he said.

In spite of the grim revenue outlook, Sousa insisted Premier Kathleen Wynne’s minority Liberals, who could soon be plunged into an election, could still “eliminate the deficit by 2017-18 in a balanced and responsible way.”

The finance minister said he hoped Ottawa, which “dramatically cut transfers to Ontario while increasing payments to every other province,” would help the province.

“We continue to ask the federal government to live up to their own long-standing commitment to make Ontario whole,” he said, referring to the unexpected $641 million reduction in equalization payments from the national wealth-sharing program.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli (Nipissing) played down the significance of the new deficit figure, noting it marked the 24th time the Liberals have amended a shortfall forecast since the 2008 global recession.

“But leave it to the Liberals to celebrate the fact they’re spending $11.3 billion more than they’re taking in,” he said.

The Conservatives have pledged to balance the books by 2016-17, but acknowledge deep cuts will have to be made to rein in spending.

On Tuesday, Fedeli released a leaked Liberal budget rollout calendar — outlining Sousa’s marketing plans through to the May 1 fiscal blueprint — that revealed $5.7 billion in new spending.

‎Sources told the Star that investigators have not yet determined the identity of the mid-level manager in the Ministry of Finance suspected of sharing the confidential 11-page document with the Tories.



This jackass must be smokin some wild shi t prudent really ? ?
Blaming federal government blaming less revs from taxes what a jackass who elects these bafoons

Interest on our debt is now 11 billion a yr

Unreal when you have incompetent peoplemat the top and staggering interest on debt alone they come up with this ,

So this will pay for one yrs worth of interest alone correction interest on debt is 11 billion , then what nothing to show for and one less asset baffoooooons



Jan Carr, Ontario's former hydro czar, warns that while the province could raise $10 billion by selling off some of its key hydro assets, it wouldn't all be simple.
Selling off some of Ontario’s key hydro assets could easily raise $10 billion for the province, and probably more, says the province’s former hydro czar.
But it wouldn’t all be simple, warns Jan Carr, the first chief executive of the Ontario Power Authority.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa avoided using the word “sell” when he announced Friday that the province is looking at options for Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One.

Sousa said the province wants to “improve efficiency and optimize financial performance” of the companies, and to “maximize value for Ontarians.”

The most recent attempt at a hydro sell-off ended in tears, when the former Conservative government of Mike Harris tried to privatize Hydro One.

Two unions took the matter to court, where Mr. Justice Arthur Gans ruled in 2002 that the legislation governing Hydro One didn’t give the province the authority to sell it.

Until Friday, no government had taken another run at it. Now it will be up to a council headed by TD Bank chief executive Ed Clark to make suggestions.

The two companies issued terse, identically worded statements Friday: “We welcome the work of the council and we will fully participate in the process.”

But the process for the two companies is likely to be different, says Carr, now a corporate director and consultant in the energy sector.

“Hydro One is fairly straightforward,” Carr said in an interview. “I wouldn’t think that would be difficult to privatize. Just auction the whole thing off.”

Both the business and regulatory models are well-known, and the return on investment is stable.

It operates in two sectors. One is the high-voltage, long-distance transmission lines carrying power across the province. The second is the lower-voltage lines that distribute power directly to homes, farms and businesses, mostly outside urban centres.

Those businesses could be split and sold separately, Carr said.

An advisory panel has proposed widespread consolidation of local utilities, which run the same kind of low-voltage distribution business as Hydro One.

Splitting Hydro One’s distribution business into a dozen or so operations, perhaps merged with local utilities in larger centres like London and Kingston, is one way of doing that.

OPG is more complex, and a tougher sell, says Carr.

It has two nuclear plants, and a wide range of hydro-electric facilities — some big, some small.

The rates from the nuclear stations and the biggest hydro facilities — at Niagara, and on the St. Lawrence River — are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.

OPG’s nuclear rates are lower than the rates awarded to Bruce Power, which operates the Bruce nuclear station under a long-term lease from OPG.

Earlier this week, Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Bruce Power, proclaimed an interest in taking over OPG’s nuclear plants during a session with the editorial board of the Toronto Sun.

Joining the nuclear operations makes sense on one level: Both companies are embarking on major reactor overhauls, OPG at its Darlington station, and Bruce at its Bruce B station.

The two projects will be competing for suppliers, contractors and skilled workers; Hawthorne argues that a single management could rationalize the process.

On Friday, Bruce Power had no comment on Sousa’s speech.

OPG’s hydro assets are a thornier question, says Carr.

“Niagara and Saunders are two good business units. They’re sellable,” he said.

“The issue there might be tugging at the heartstrings — selling Niagara Falls. Talk about a tough political thing.”

“And if there’s a case to be made for public ownership, it’s in the hydro-electric area. Why? Because it’s very long-lived and the markets and the private sector doesn’t price long-lived assets properly. It’s not good at looking 100 years ahead.”

As for the smaller, non-regulated hydro stations, Carr says they’re unlikely to find buyers in the current market, because the wholesale price of power is unrealistically low.

“My high-level thought would be split off the nuclear in a rationalized nuclear sector under private management. And I’m not sure what else you could do.”

“This is just to kick the can down the road past the next election,” he said.The minority Liberal government will need the NDP’s help to get the spring budget passed and avoid an election, but New Democrat Peter Tabuns said Friday they won’t support any moves to privatize public assets.“All I can say is we aren’t supporting privatization,” said Tabuns. “Whatever the minister says, he’s talking about moving forward to sell some of the key assets in this province. It’s a mistake.”Sousa said the panel will help determine what businesses the government should own and what it shouldn’t, but added “continuing public ownership” remains a key priority.“We will not do what the previous Conservative government did with the fire sale of Highway 407,” he said. “In a rush to a balanced budget they sold an asset for a price significantly below its market value that did not protect taxpayers.The finance minister also announced the government was proceeding with construction of a new four-lane alignment of Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph, the expansion of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Highway 401, and 10 new OPP detachments across Ontario.“Building infrastructure is good for the economy and for people,” said Sousa.Posted in: News Tags: Breaking



Nice so what did the libereals do with the drummond report recommendations