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Originally Posted by haljackey
Some suggestions:
Raise PST 2% (covers the 2% drop in GST a few years back)
Get rid of the Catholic School board
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Both should happen but would be political suicide for an Ontario politician. It would amount to something like $6B between the two of them, or about half the deficit right there.
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Originally Posted by haljackey
Get rid of TVO
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Never thought about that one. Probably a good idea to save some cash.
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Originally Posted by haljackey
Put the Green Energy Program on hold (don't cancel funded/approved projects, but don't greenlight anything new until budget is balanced)
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Wouldn't actually save money from the budget as hydro is funded by ratepayers. Most of the ratepayer increase of recent years is associated with the large costs of nuclear rehab, not green energy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by haljackey
Get rid of the 30% tuition credit (students will hate this)
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Semi-agree. I'd advocate scrapping this and using the savings to increase the proportion of OSAP that is non-repayable (ie. replace some loan amount with bursary amount). With tuition skyrocketing and the province increasingly moving to a high-skills economy where post-secondary education is essential, student assistance is too vital to cut.
There's a lot of rhetoric about the 30% tuition credit "not covering most students" but it's not really true, as most of the restrictions are quite reasonable. It excludes non-Ontarians (valid as this is funded by Ontario taxpayers), mature students (valid as they in theory should have some head start on saving for tuition already), and individuals from wealthy families (valid as they don't need reductions).
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Originally Posted by haljackey
Make HOV lanes HOT lanes (vehicles with 1 occupant can use it but pay a fee like 407)
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This one is already happening
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Originally Posted by haljackey
Make government more accountable (stop these stupid, costly party scandals)
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Have there been any lately? Last one was the gas plants right?
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Originally Posted by haljackey
Implement Drummond Report recommendations wherever possible
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Isn't the government already going through with most of it?
In any case, these cuts only had to be allow for a spending freeze, as the fiscal plan is to keep spending at current levels and allow revenue growth to eat into the deficit over the course of a few years.