Ontario Place to shut down water park, amusement rides
Robert Benzie Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Toronto Star

The Liberals are placing the long-term future of Ontario Place in the hands of former Progressive Conservative leader John Tory.

But in the short term, major parts of the money-losing waterfront park will be closed as the province struggles with a $16-billion budget deficit and is facing service cuts.

The water park and amusement rides will be shut down as they require $20 million in upgrades. The Cinesphere, home of the IMAX theatre, will also be closed.

But Atlantis, the Molson Amphitheatre and the marina will remain open.

As first disclosed by the Star, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Tourism Minister Michael Chan have turned to Tory to spearhead a drive to revamp the 41-year-old shoreline white elephant.

“John will lead a panel to engage Ontarians and advise the government on revitalization of Ontario Place,” a senior official said Wednesday.

“It's really about community engagement as we want Ontario Place to be totally renewed by 2017,” the source said.

“Attendance has fallen off and it's losing money. We think families deserve better.”

Underutilized for decades, the 39-hectare (96-acre) park now attracts about 1-million visitors a year, down from its heyday in the early 1970s when annual crowds of 2.5 million made it a waterfront institution.

The Liberals hope Tory, who was PC leader from 2004 until 2009 and was runner-up to David Miller in the 2003 Toronto mayoral contest, will bring some much-needed action to the facility.

He should also be able to break the traditional logjam with city hall, which owns and operates the adjacent Exhibition Place site.

Sources say Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who respects Tory, will be willing to work with him on any integration plans.

If Ontario Place and Exhibition Place are eventually brought together under one umbrella, that could increase the value of both assets and ease redevelopment.

While a casino at Ontario Place is not in the cards — despite published rumours — gaming could come to Exhibition Place, which has more parking and better transit access.

But gambling is not part of Tory's mandate.

Appointing such a prominent Conservative — who hosts a popular afternoon radio show on Newstalk 1010 and was recently awarded the Order of Ontario for his community work, including with CivicAction — is a deft move by the Grits.

It makes it hard for his successor PC Leader Tim Hudak to attack any redevelopment plans.

As well, because Ontario Place was a pet project of Tory's friend and mentor, popular former PC premier Bill Davis, who governed from 1971 to 1985, any criticism from that quarter would be muted.

Tory MPP Peter Shurman hailed the appointment.

“John Tory is a good guy who wears a Toronto and an Ontario hat first and foremost before a partisan hat,” said Shurman (Thornhill).

“I wish him well. I always think it’s a great move turning to a Conservative. John will bring … professionalism to that task and, hopefully through the course of time, we’ll see an Ontario Place we can all be proud of,” he said

Liberals to close parts of Ontario Place to save cash
The Canadian Press        
    
TORONTO — The iconic giant white ball beside Lake Ontario that houses the Ontario Place Cinesphere will be destroyed and the 39-hectare park shut down for five years for a redevelopment the government hopes will bring tourists back in droves.

The cash-strapped province, facing a $16-billion deficit, can't afford to keep Ontario Place open when attendance has fallen from 2.5 million when it opened in 1971 to about 300,000, said Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

"It's fallen into disrepair and we just don't want to continue to put in $20 million a year when there's declining use," he said.

"This is about a sustainable Ontario Place that not only will improve but it will be financially sustainable. To simply continue to increase funding while attendance goes down is not."

The water park, amusement rides and the Cinesphere will be torn down while the park is closed until 2017 so a panel led by former Progressive Conservative leader John Tory looks at ways to make Ontario Place a "must-visit" destination again for tourists.

The panel will report back to government this spring and hopes to start the process for redevelopment work by the summer. There are no conditions on what the panel can consider, and there have already been lots of ideas put forward to rebuild Ontario Place, said Tory.

"There's been I think 11 studies and that's probably about nine more than there needed to be, and now it's time to act and get on with doing something," he said.

"I want it to be excellent, a people place, something that will help to create jobs and enrich the cultural and social fabric of Toronto and takes advantage of what is a jewel of a location."

Reporters laughed aloud when Tourism Minister Michael Chan said one of the four areas to remain open at Ontario Place would be the parking lots.

The only other things to stay open will be the amphitheatre where concerts are held, the Atlantis pavilion and the marina.

No decision has been made on whether or not to put a new casino at Ontario Place as part of the revitalization project, but the panel can consider the idea, said Duncan.

"The government has not considered additional casinos," he said.

"It is at best premature to suggest any decisions have been made in that regard."

The province will look to the private sector to fund the redevelopment of Ontario Place, added Duncan.

"What we don't know is what the final configuration is, but what's important is that we also leverage private capital in the redevelopment of this site," he said.

The New Democrats said they fear that could mean more waterfront condominiums will be built on what Duncan called some of the most expensive land in North America.

"There's an eventual privatization we see coming out of this. Who knows what it's going to look like at the end," said NDP critic Gilles Bisson.

"There's probably more questions being raised than have been answered in this press conference, and I think time will tell exactly what's going to happen."

The Progressive Conservatives called it a good idea to revitalize Ontario Place, but said the government should make sure the park remains affordable after it is rebuilt and reopened.

"Ontario Place needs a face lift and probably more," said Tory Peter Shurman.

"Let's give people something they really value and let's give it to them at a reasonable price."

About 50 full-time workers will lose their jobs, and 600 summer jobs will also disappear, as the waterfront park owned by the province is closed, overhauled and rebuilt.

Admission to Ontario Place was free last year for the park's 40th anniversary, which helped increase admissions to 563,000.

McGuinty can’t walk the fine finance line forever: OUR OPINION
By Bob Bruton - Barrie Examiner


Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is walking a fine line between saying and doing to address the provincial deficit.

Speaking to a business audience at Toronto’s Canadian Club this week, McGuinty spoke of doctors, nurses, teachers and about a million Ontario public sector workers who will need to hold their salary demands in check this year to cut into this province’s $16-billion deficit.

But the premier has rejected a legislated pay freeze, noting goodwill and respect built up with unions at the negotiating table in past years should translate to the collective bargaining process.

One reason McGuinty has rejected a pay freeze law, of course, is because the Conservatives are insisting on one.

And Tory boss Tim Hudak has a point.

In 2009, the Liberals tried for a voluntary public sector wage freeze. Most unions, however, continued to negotiate salary increases; this lead to some workers getting pay hikes, while managers and non-unionized employees doing the same work didn’t get a raise.

And it should be remembered that the job of unions is to get the best deal possible — in terms of salary, benefits and working conditions — during the collective bargaining process. The union leaders work for their members, whether they be nurses, teachers or other public employees.

In the same breath, McGuinty knows the importance of getting a handle on the salaries of Ontario workers. He told the Canadian Club that half of his government’s annual spending, or about $55 billion, goes to wages and salaries.

And that provincial spending cannot be reduced without taking action on salary expenditures.

But the decision on what action to take is no longer the Liberals’ alone.

Ontario voters elected a minority government last fall, although the Grits fell just one seat short of a third straight majority.

Which means that McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will need some help passing their next budget, expected in March.

Tory finance critic Peter Shurman has already said his party won’t be giving up on its demand that the budget include a legislated public sector wage freeze.

The New Democrats, who could therefore hold the balance of power, are holding their cards close on this subject. As the unofficial party of working people and labour, it would be difficult to see the NDP support a wage freeze law.

And McGuinty has more than just public salaries to worry about in his next budget.

While no specifics have been released, the Liberals want to cap increased health-care spending at 3% annually, or less than half the amount in each of the previous eight years. Duncan also wants to hold his government’s overall spending to just 1% more during the next fiscal year.

So what gets cut?

NDP leader Andrea Horwath has advocated reducing planned business tax breaks, as a means of creating more government revenue and not having to take the knife to provincial services or expenditures.

Perhaps that is what will be needed for the Liberals to get NDP support for the next Ontario budget.

Right now, it appears any deal with the Tories is a non-starter.

McGuinty has said, quite correctly, that there’s no easy way out of the fiscal dilemma Ontario is in — because even another year of this deficit level is unacceptable.

The question is how he brings the deficit down, and what type of deal the premier has to make to get it there.

McGuinty must restrain himself

Editorial, QMI Agency
Premier Dalton McGuinty announced plans to restrain his government’s spending last week.

This to address Ontario’s $16 billion deficit and threatened credit downgrade.

McGuinty suggested the answer lies in things like health care “reform.”

That typically means delisting and defunding more medical services, but we’ll see.

Considering McGuinty has been in power since 2003, we thought Tory MPP Peter Shurman summed up McGuinty’s speech on fiscal restraint to the Canadian Club rather well.

He described it as, “the words of a man who for the last eight-plus years has held the shovel while digging Ontario into the biggest hole it’s ever been in, (who) suddenly has found religion where the deficit is concerned.”

Because we strive to be helpful at the Sun, here are some ideas for how McGuinty could have saved money in the past, which might provide helpful guidance for the future.

(1) McGuinty decided in 2010 to contribute $5 million — $500,000 annually for 10 years — to a federally-funded human rights museum in Winnipeg. Since Winnipeg is in Manitoba, not Ontario, we suggest our geographically-challenged premier end our contribution at $1 million ($500,000 for each of 2010 and 2011) for a tidy saving of $4 million.

(2) We urge McGuinty, in future, to avoid spending $1 billion NOT to create a workable eHealth system of electronic medical records for all Ontarians. After all, McGuinty could have spent zero dollars NOT creating such a system, thus saving taxpayers $1 billion.

(3) McGuinty could have saved another $1 billion, approximately, by not cancelling two natural gas plants to save the political hides of two Liberal MPPs leading up to the 2011 election. In fairness, McGuinty has said one of the plants will be moved. We invite readers to treat this claim with all the seriousness it deserves.

(4) In future, we urge McGuinty not to force Ontarians to pay, through higher electricity rates, up to $250 million annually to green energy companies not to produce electricity. Someone in government should tell the premier you can actually pay zero dollars for zero electricity.

(5) The next time McGuinty asks the Ontario public service to accept a wage freeze, he might want to do more than ask, by passing a law imposing a freeze, since the public sector unions ignored his request for a voluntary freeze. Unfortunately, there will be no saving from a legislated freeze going forward because McGuinty has already rejected the idea.

(6) Don’t impose programs we can’t afford like all-day kindergarten (cost $1.5 billion annually, plus $1 billion for renovations), given that while it would be nice to have everything we want, when we’re massively in debt we have to avoid buying things we can’t afford.

We hope these ideas will help McGuinty stop running out of our money in future.

Sadly, given his record, we doubt they will

McGuinty hints at cuts to public service
in drive to eliminate $16B deficit
by Emily Senger, iPolitics Staff With files from the Canadian Press

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty re-committed to balancing the budget by the 2017-18 fiscal year in a speech Tuesday, barely hinting at cuts to come as the province tries to get its $16-billion deficit under control.

In a speech to the Canadian Club, McGuinty didn’t give specifics, but hinted at slower spending after the Drummond Commission, lead by former bank economist Don Drummond, delivers its final report on reform of Ontario’s public service in the coming weeks.

Now that Ontario has weathered the worst of the global economic downturn, the province needs to focus its attention to the deficit in order to improve consumer and international confidence in the economy, the premier said.

“Now that the storm is over, it’s right to rededicate ourselves to our plan to eliminate that deficit,” McGuinty said.

While promising not to raise taxes and to protect health care and education — part of his 2011 re-election promises — McGuinty said there are “opportunities for reform” in the health-care sector, which currently makes up 40 per cent of provincial program spending.

Heath Minister Deb Matthews will introduce a plan for health-care transformation, he said.

Salary expenditures were another area where McGuinty said there could be savings.

While Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak suggested Monday that the government should consider privatizing services in order to cut costs, McGuinty promised to respect the collective bargaining process, but also “negotiate firmly.”

Speaking to reporters later, McGuinty took the prospect of a public-sector wage freeze off the table, something the PCs are pushing for.

“The wage freeze has been rejected by Don Drummond, it’s been rejected by the government in Ottawa, it’s been rejected by the government here in Toronto,” McGuinty said. “There is a determination here to ensure that you get expenditures under control, but to do that by bargaining fairly, but firmly, through the collective bargaining process. That’s what we intend to do.”

McGuinty, who rebuilt public services after deep cuts under former premier Mike Harris’ PC government, said that he hopes the respect he has built with the public service will aid his government in bargaining.

The premier also rejected the idea that the government will look for significant new revenue sources — a downtown Toronto casino and higher alcohol prices have both been suggested — rather than making cuts.

The speech, and McGuinty’s repeated assurance that “it’s not going to be easy,” but “we’re all in this together,” didn’t cut it for Toronto PC MPP Peter Shurman.

“These are the words of a man who, for the last eight-plus years, has held the shovel while digging Ontario into the biggest hole it’s ever been in and is now saying ‘we all have to work together to get out of it’ and, suddenly, has found religion where the deficit is concerned,” Shurman charged.

He also questioned whether the Liberals would be able to bring the deficit under control without significantly affecting services.

“I am very concerned about the prospect of having him at the helm when it comes to attacking a deficit and, certainly, in the way that he is talking about, which is really without any terrible inconvenience to anybody,” Shurman said.

On the question of public-sector wages, the PCs haven’t ruled out a wage freeze, even if the Liberals have.

“As far as we’re concerned, a wage freeze is not off the table, a wage freeze is essential when it comes to dealing with the public service,” Shurman said.

Shurman said collective agreements are under negotiation and suggested that part of that negotiation can, and should, include a zero increase and a wage freeze.

He wouldn’t speculate on whether the PC party will vote against the budget, the date of which has not been set.

For the NDP, a main concern was the lack of specifics on the looming changes to the health-care system.

“When this government starts to say we’re going to transform the health care system, I think we all have to be pretty nervous,” said NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“The other thing that’s possible is ‘transformation’ is just a code word for more cuts.”

Ontario will reduce medicare services to save money

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Caesarean sections could be one of the services delisted from medicare by the Ontario government as it looks to cut costs and trim a $16-billion deficit, Health Minister Deb Matthews suggested Wednesday.

The government is reviewing all health services to see if evidence shows they improve patient outcomes, and if not, they could be delisted from OHIP, Matthews told reporters.

"We need to really be rigorous in our determination to fund services that have an evidence-basis and not fund those that don't," she said.

The government is also looking at how often medical procedures are performed in Ontario compared with other jurisdictions, and found Ontario doctors perform far more C-sections than their colleagues.

"There's pretty interesting research that demonstrates geographic differences in incidences of caesarean sections for example," said Matthews.

"So what that tells me is we've got some work to do to make sure that everyone is practising the highest quality medicine."

Health care accounts for almost 44 per cent of government program spending, and Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday the sector is "overflowing with opportunities for reform."

However, McGuinty declined to offer details Wednesday on how much the government thinks it can save in health care, and said Matthews would have more to say about the government's plans next week.

"I'll be laying out several initiatives that will both improve patient care and will address the fiscal reality that we have," Matthews said as she too declined to talk about specifics.

The province saved $66 million by eliminating coverage for vitamin D testing, which evidence showed was not improving patient outcomes.

"So do we need to continue and indeed accelerate those evidence-based changes? Absolutely," said Matthews.

"But at the same time we need to fund things that do improve outcomes, so that's why we brought in new childhood vaccines, for example."

The government "will have the courage to act on the evidence" as it decides which services to pay for and which to no longer cover, she added.

"Sometimes that will mean delisting. Sometimes that will mean doing things we aren't already doing," said Matthews.

"So it cuts both ways."

The Opposition questioned what they see as McGuinty's new commitment to save money with his health-care reforms after the Liberals doubled provincial spending in the past eight years.

"Dalton McGuinty has to stop being the arsonist that sets the fires and puts himself on a fire truck so he can come and be the white knight that puts it out," said Progressive Conservative finance critic Peter Shurman.

"And that's the situation we've got in Ontario now."

The New Democrats said the Liberals have a history of delisting health services and fear more substantial services will no longer be covered.

"Of course we're worried about this because it's part of an agenda this government started eight years ago when they delisted chiropractors and physiotherapists and optometrists," said NDP finance critic Michael Prue.

"If it is confined to some narrow thing like tests that are no longer necessary fine, but she's talking in much broader terms than that and that's what causes me concerns."

One thing McGuinty said the government does want to look at is new medical technologies, which tend to be very expensive and often help doctors perform more efficiently, but never result in lower costs.

"In every other sector, when you invest in technology you reduce your costs and you pull those savings out of the system," said McGuinty.

"We have yet to effectively do that in health care here in Ontario."

Premier warns of public service sacrifices
 
No 'magic' cure for budget woes
 
By Chris Thompson, The Windsor Star
 

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Premier Dalton McGuinty sounded a warning Thursday that everyone who is paid with taxpayers' dollars can expect to have to make some sacrifices to balance the province's books.

That means teachers, doctors, nurses, provincial employees and, by extension, parents of school-aged children can expect to have to make concessions to help tackle Ontario's $16-billion deficit.

Retired TD Bank economist Don Drummond has been hired by the province at $1,500 a day to find areas where government services can be streamlined. His report is to be released later this month.

Speaking at an event to announce tuition rebates at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo Thursday morning, McGuinty said the time for cost-cutting has come.

"These are serious times," McGuinty said. "Something that we anticipated ... that's why we commissioned Don Drummond at the time of the last budget to provide us with his very best advice. Our platform was a reflection of the serious times; the lowest cost by far."

McGuinty said the Liberal party platform in the October election was less than the cost of those of the NDP and Progressive Conservatives.

"I think it was one-third the cost of the other platforms," McGuinty said.

"It had the fewest commitments. Mr. Drummond will provide us with some several hundred recommendations. We look forward to receiving those."

But in the end McGuinty said the decision of where to cut will come down to the legislature.

"His (Drummond's) responsibility, of course, is to advise and ours is to decide," said McGuinty .

"So there's a distinction, first of all, to be drawn between his responsibility and our responsibility in government. After we have received those recommendations, we will ask the legislature to help us by giving us the best advice on those. We'd like to get that into a committee. We also want to give Ontarians an opportunity to comment on that as well."

Finance Minister and Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Dwight Duncan is unavailable for comment this week and next, his Queen's Park office said.

A spokesman for Windsor West MPP Teresa Piruzza said details of Drummond's plans had not been filtered out to caucus and declined to comment.

A request for comment from the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union was not returned.

Tory finance critic Peter Shurman, MPP for Thornhill, said the Liberals are now forced to clean up the fiscal mess they have made and some media characterizations of Duncan as a "fiscal hawk" are out of line.

"If Dwight Duncan is a fiscal hawk then I'm Smokey the Bear," said Shurman.

Shurman said what the McGuinty government is asking Drummond to do is what the Tories have been urging for years.

"We hope Mr. Drummond has better luck making this case to the government than we have," said Shurman.

But when asked if the cuts would be on the scale of those of the Mike Harris government in the 1990s, McGuinty said no.

"What I can assure Ontarians is that their values will be our government's values," said McGuinty .

"We will do everything we can to protect our health care, protect our education, and put in place the kinds of measures that continue to support a stronger and growing economy. Those are the kinds of things that remain our focus."

McGuinty said everyone in the province is going to have to accept a share of dealing with the deficit.

"We're all going to have a role to play," said McGuinty .

"If we're going to be as effective as we need to be in terms of strengthening this economy and ensuring that we're getting ever more value for the public dollars that are being invested in our public institutions - whether that's education at whatever level or in health care or other kinds of public services that we are delivering - then we're all going to bring something to the table. I think Ontarians understand that these are serious times. I think they understand that there is no magic. We can't wish our way out of this. We can't sit on our hands and hope that, you know, global economics turns around and somehow begins to act as some kind of an advantage for us."

Pan American Games in financial trouble, Olympic icon warns

Robyn Doolittle and Rob Ferguson Staff Reporters, With files from Robert Benzie, The Toronto Star

Olympic icon Paul Henderson has caused a commotion in the province’s sporting community after sending an open letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty warning that the 2015 Pan American Games will come in billions over budget.

According to Henderson, the $2.4 billion budget is unrealistic, given the scope of proposed new builds and facility renovations. Organizers, he argues, have also failed to accurately account for a number of “soft costs,” such as additional pressures on police.

Henderson predicts that when the TO2015 board releases an updated business plan and budget in the coming months — the first official update since the 2009 bid book — the cost escalation “could well be from $1.4 billion to over $2.5 billion.”

Henderson, who ran Toronto’s failed 1996 Olympic bid and was an early supporter of efforts to bring the Pan Ams to Ontario, is not involved with organizing TO2015, but said in an interview Tuesday he made his comments based on his previous expertise with major multi-sporting events.

A spokesperson with TO2015 said the report is inaccurate.

“TO2015 is working with the province and the federal government on the budget and we will share the numbers once approved. The budget is $1.4 billion — (the province is paying for the $1 billion athlete’s village) — and we are working within that scope.”

Henderson’s letter is the latest headache for the TO2015 team, which sources say is running behind schedule in most areas, save for the athlete’s village. CEO Ian Troop has said this is absolutely not true, but an investigation published by the Star in October showed that as many as a quarter of the venues are still not nailed down.

The most publicized setback has been TO2015’s inability to secure a location for a key new build, the velodrome. Sources say the organizers may need to rely on a temporary facility, which — while cheaper in the short-term — will leave no legacy behind, a key mandate of the Games.

At Queen’s Park, Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) expressed concern at cost overruns and delays.

“We know that the longer we delay it the more it will cost,” Shurman, the PC finance critic, told reporters. “I think the province of Ontario is mismanaging it. Get on with it.”

When pressed on where he came up with the specific dollar amounts, Henderson said he relied on his previous experience as well as news reports about the 2015 Games.

For example, Henderson added $22 million to the bottom line after learning a new badminton facility would need to be found because the one identified in the bid book has an inadequate ceiling height. Markham has agreed to build the new venue and pick up the tab. So even though the cost of the new building will not come out of TO2015’s budget, in Henderson’s view “it’s all still taxpayers’ money.”

In the letter to McGuinty, Henderson specified nine areas where savings could be found, such as combining multiple sport competitions in the same venue, hosting the Pan and Para Pan Games at the same time rather than consecutively and scaling back “over-the-top” facilities.

The Ontario cabinet minister overseeing the 2015 event said some of these ideas, such as paring down the number of sporting venues events at the Pan Am Games, are already under consideration.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Charles Sousa accused Henderson of “making up a number” regarding potential cost overruns, although the government will not release internal figures of the latest budgeting.

“It’s not gonna reach the numbers he’s talking about,” Sousa insisted. “He’s using numbers based on the original bid book. Things have changed since then.”

A high-placed source involved in the Games said contingencies for overages have been built into the budget.

The source expanded on the minister’s comments, noting that many of Henderson’s suggestions have already been looked at and ruled out. For example, organizers had considered running the Pan Am and Para Pan Games at the same time, but the Para Pan sporting community shut down the idea.

“2012 can be a better year than the one now behind us if only the government shows a grasp of economic issues” – Shurman

Written by: NNL Staff.

QUEEN’S PARK – The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are sending the McGuinty Government a message. That message is based on an old adage that if you care who gets the credit, anything can be achieved. “2012 can be a better year than the one now behind us if only the government shows a grasp of economic issues”, PC Finance Critic Peter Shurman signalled today to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. “Ontarians are looking to all of us now to take action on a fraying economy,” continued Shurman. “The rating agencies are watching too. Another – and truly disastrous – credit downgrade can be avoided if we demonstrate that we can act together to tackle our jobs, spending and debt crisis.”

Shurman offered, as an example of recent discord about Ontario’s direction on jobs and our economy, the debate over business tax rates during an economic downturn. Duncan had previously said that such business tax increases ‘will kill Ontario’s competitive edge.’ “The new Liberal spin is that scrapping the next round of legislated business tax reductions would not harm our struggling manufacturing sector, which constitutes 15 per cent of our economy,” Shurman said. “But this tax increase would be foisted on the other 85 per cent.”

Shurman stressed that our economy doesn’t work in silos this way: “Ontario manufacturers depend on the services sector. It’s called ‘a business input’ – just like labour or energy costs. So of course a tax hike on the services sector will hit the bottom line of our hard-pressed manufacturers. “To deny this is like saying a jump in the price of steel would have no impact on the cost of a new car.”

Shurman noted that any about-face on employer tax reductions would come on top of the January 1 WSIB payroll tax hike, forecast Hydro increases of eight per cent, a rising Canadian dollar for our exporters, the expected further deterioration of the US economy and the continuing crisis in the Eurozone.

“So I urge the Minister to begin 2012 by recognizing economic reality on the impact of higher business taxes,” Shurman said. “This would mark a New Year of cooperation on milestones yet to come – including the Drummond report later this month and the spring Budget – where the rubber really hits the road.”

Shurman recalled an old saying that, ” ‘There is no limit to what someone can do if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit’. My New Year’s message to Minister Duncan is to heed this advice,” Shurman concluded.

McGuinty says government will ‘address’ PS salaries, with few specifics

By lee greenberg, The Ottawa Citizen

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says his special relationship with unions, based on “respect and collaboration” – and large pay increases – will help him rein in public sector salaries in upcoming negotiations.

McGuinty said those salaries, which make up more than half of all government spending, will be a major focus as Ontario tries to dig itself out of a $16-billion deficit.

“It’s simply not possible to reduce spending without addressing salary expenditures,” McGuinty told a business crowd at a luncheon speech in downtown Toronto Tuesday.

The Liberal leader warned unions to hold their demands in check, saying the province will negotiate “firmly” and “responsibl(y)”.

McGuinty has presided over generous increases to a broad array of public sector workers, including roughly 25 per cent to teachers, who now earn, on average, $83,500 annually. His government gave even larger increases to doctors, including a 25 per cent bonus to family physicians who joined a group practice. Those doctors now earn between $376,000 and $407,000 annually.

After the speech, McGuinty told reporters he will not impose a wage freeze on unions as is being demanded by the Progressive Conservative party. He did not specify what wage increases his government considers reasonable.

He did say, however, that he believes he has an advantage over other leaders in upcoming negotiations.

“I’m hoping that the foundation of respect and collaboration and measurable progress that we have laid during the first eight years puts me in a good position so when I go to my teachers, my doctors, my nurses and everybody else in the public sector and say ‘listen folks, we need to do this’… I’m hoping they’ll receive that with an open mind,” he said.

Conservative MPP Peter Shurman said McGuinty had won the goodwill from unions “by giving away the candy store for the past eight years.”

“We’ll see how far that goodwill lasts,” he said.

Among other large groups, the province is bargaining with its 25,000 doctors whose salaries account for $10 billion annually.

One of the most vocal union voices in the province, Sid Ryan, said many workers will have a hard time tempering their demands despite the appeal from McGuinty.

Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, pointed to frontline hospital employees who work under some of the highest-paid workers in the province

“Then to turn around to frontline workers and say ‘you’ve got to moderate your demands’. That’s not on,” he said. “We’ve always been reasonable, but it really depends on the workplace. You can’t just say across the board, unions will reduce our wage demands.”

Ontario’s government is attempting to live up to its promise of balancing the province’s massive $16 billion deficit by 2017. At the same time, it is dealing with shrinking revenue and crippling debt servicing charges that amount to $10 billion annually.

McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan last year turned to former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond to advise them on potential spending reforms.

The government is preparing to release that report next month. It contains roughly 400 recommendations, several of which have been made public.

Drummond will recommend, for example, moving gambling to more central locations, hiking alcohol prices and rejigging cash registers to prevent tax theft. He will also recommend consolidating some ministries and overhauling others.

Health care, which accounts for 70 per cent of the government budget by 2030, will not escape.

Drummond believes certain medical procedures are unnecessary, including arthroscopic knee surgery (which simply delays knee replacement by one year), while others, like caesarean sections, are performed too often.

McGuinty said Tuesday that Health Minister Deb Matthews will unveil the government’s plan to reorder health care “shortly.”

Critics like Shurman say McGuinty shouldn’t be trusted to implement reform, however, considering the Liberal government has hiked spending by 66 per cent - or nearly $50 billion – since McGuinty took office in 2003.

Shurman said for the past eight years, McGuinty “has held the shovel while digging Ontario into the biggest hole it’s ever been in.”

“And now he’s saying we all have to work together to get out of it,” he said. “He’s suddenly found religion where the deficit is concerned.”