安省大选: 自由党政府2018财政预算

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在这个档次收入的人,未必在乎这一两百块的税,也就一两顿饭馆。但整体来看,基建投资对OTTAWA的好处不大。

看看省议会议席都在来自哪里。:D

124个选区,渥太华只占8个。

https://www.elections.on.ca/content...cial Map with Electoral Divisions 34 x 44.pdf


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"I'm not saying kids," Ford responded. "If there's five people in your house that are paying taxes, there's going to be five people paying $200 more in taxes."
如果一个家庭5个成员,每个都超过10万收入,还struggling with the highest hydro rates in North America,这个FORD真是太逗了.
 
如果一个家庭5个成员,每个都超过10万收入,还struggling with the highest hydro rates in North America,这个FORD真是太逗了.

看他能拿出个啥样的竞选platform吧。砍开支,不加税、政府不裁员、不减少服务、不减少社会福利,看他有什么高招。
 
http://www.macleans.ca/politics/kathleen-wynnes-vision-now-meets-doug-fords-promises-later/

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The question before the court is: What kind of heathen are you, you’re not going to support Kathleen Wynne’s nice budget?

It’s a plan for care and opportunity. That’s the title on the cover of the 300-page budget book: A Plan For Care and Opportunity. What, you don’t like care and opportunity? You’re going to vote for careless and hopeless? I don’t even want to know you.

Here’s what Care and Opportunity look like. It’s free prescription drugs for everyone 65 and over. It’s free childcare from the age of two and a half to kindergarten. It’s, frankly, a fairly rudimentary drug and dental program (up to $700 for a family of four) for anyone who’s not already covered at work. It’s $19 billion for new and renovated hospitals. Nineteen billion dollars, people.

READ MORE: Ontario budget 2018: In an election year, Wynne bets on deficits

This is what civilization looks like. This fragile veneer that keeps us human. You’re not going to pick this future? You think you have that luxury? It is to laugh, friend. The dogs are waiting outside, or at least the Doug, and you’re going to nickel-and-dime over whether the provincial government can afford this windfall for Ontario’s hospitals? God. I shake my head.

Sure there’s a cost. Sure there’s a weensy cost. The kind of cost you should be willing to pay, if you care even a jot about your fellow Ontarian. Willing? You should be glad to pay it. The Liberals have promised, with admirable consistency and under two successive premiers, Dalton McGuinty and Wynne, to balance the budget of Canada’s largest province by 2017-18. And on Wednesday, Charles Sousa, the Liberal finance minister, told the legislature he had hit that target. Except it turned out to be a temporary target. Having balanced the budget, the Liberals will make haste to unbalance it again, running deficits of $6.7 billion in 2018-19, $6.6 billion in 2019-20 and $6.5 billion in 2020-21.

At that rate the Liberals would need 67 years to balance the budget again, but in fact—they swear!—they’ll pick up the pace in the late years of their next mandate. Assuming, of course, Ontario voters grant them that mandate. Sousa promised he’d balance the budget again, for at least an afternoon, in the seventh year of the new plan, in 2024-25.

RELATED: Ontario budget 2018: The Liberals promise fiscal prudence. Really?

The only thing that could interrupt that majestic slow march back to balance, after sprinting back to deficit, is the strong likelihood of at least one other election over the next seven years. Because what we’ve learned during Wynne’s tenure as premier is that the approach of an election makes her noticeably more spendy. It happened in 2014, it’s happening this year, and it will certainly happen the next time Ontarians go to the polls, assuming the Liberal playbook is the one still in use.

But even if the Liberals were to stick to the plan Sousa published on Wednesday, there’d be a long-term burden on the provincial treasury, in the form of growing debt. This part the Liberals didn’t use to promise. In his first budget, in 2013, Sousa promised the balanced budget he delivered today. But he went on to promise he’d reduce “the net debt‐to‐GDP ratio to the pre‐recession level of 27 per cent.” That promise is no longer operative. Net debt to GDP is at 37.1 per cent today, and it’s slated to grow to 38.6 per cent by 2020-21.

Even if you’re not the type to fret over the bottom line, there are other elements of the Wynne-Sousa budget that might give you pause, including the extremely leisurely pace at which they plan to deliver many of their promises. I’m from Ottawa, and it’s annoying enough when the still-new federal government of Justin Trudeau promises to do something wonderful five or 10 years out. Imagine reading this provincial budget, the product of a government nearly 15 years old, and reading grand schemes for another decade in power.

That $19 billion for hospitals, for example, is over 10 years. The $534 million for child care is over six years. The 30,000 long-term beds for senior care will take a decade, which may be more time than the current cohort of seniors has. Better schools? Sixteen billion. Over a decade. I wasn’t expecting Kathleen Wynne to win the 2014 election, so I suppose I shouldn’t scoff at her current three-election plan. But it sure is audacious, to pick one of several available words.

In Ottawa, opposition politicians don’t get to come into the budget lockup to dump on the budget before the minister even gets to table it. Toronto is a more civilized venue, and Doug Ford, the province’s new Progressive Conservative leader (it’s a long story), paid reporters a mid-afternoon visit to play the Ghost of Christmas Pretty Bloody Likely Yet to Come. “My friends, just imagine what Kathleen Wynne will do if she gets re-elected,” he said. “God help us. We’ve seen it many a times.” He predicted a $1,000 tax increase for a family of five. Except he promised it will never come to pass. The Liberals are sure to lose the election, Ford announced, and reminded us that happy day is 71 days hence. When it comes, “Together we will usher in a new era of prosperity. Prosperity such as this province has never seen before.”

Questions. Is Ford promising a balanced budget? “Our goal is always to have a balanced budget,” he said, “but we don’t even know if this”—The Wynne-Sousa tome before him—“is a truthful budget.” Once in power, he said, he’ll go through the budget “line item by line item.”

Where did that $1,000 tax increase come from? “Two hundred dollars each, for a family of five,” Ford said.

The reporter who’d asked him the question puzzled briefly over the answer. That $200 tax increase doesn’t kick in until higher levels of income. “If every one of them makes over $90,000?” This would theoretically include any children in the family.

“Seventy-one thousand,” Ford said cheerfully. “You can check your figures.”

What will Ford do, a dapper Toronto Star reporter wanted to know, after he gets rid of Wynne’s child care plan? Ford didn’t like the question. “I never said I will scrap it.” He feels deeply for families paying “exorbrant child-care fees.” But he doesn’t like the Liberals promising the moon. “You get a free car. You get a free car. You get a free car,” he bellowed, pointing at reporters in different parts of the room, Oprah-style. “That’s next on their agenda.”

When he releases his election platform, “you’re going to see a very clear plan,” Ford said. Plainly today was not the day to release a platform. Ford is upset about the need for child care and about Wynne’s plan to provide child care, but don’t say he’s promised to scrap her plan. He’ll be very clear. Later.

Reporters with more experience covering Ford cradled their heads in despair after his appearance, but I was impressed. He left himself all possible options: Balancing now or later or, I guess, never; cutting deeply or not at all; keeping Wynne’s plans or scrapping them. The premier has sketched her vision of Ontario’s future in exquisite detail. Her most imposing rival has offered barely a hint about his vision. The campaign that will settle their dispute will start formally in about a month, but who are we kidding, it’s on.
 
如果一个家庭5个成员,每个都超过10万收入,还struggling with the highest hydro rates in North America,这个FORD真是太逗了.
如果 hydro rate 确实高,每个人都可以抱怨,与挣多少钱没什么关系。
 
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Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivers the provincial budget at the Ontario Legislature, while Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne looks on in Toronto, Ont. on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network ORG XMIT: POS1803281656161721Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

Tristin Hopper

March 30, 2018
10:30 AM EDT

The Ontario Liberals’ new spendthrift budget appears to have worked. According to a new poll from Forum Research, the party has closed the lead of the Progressive Conservatives.

The Liberals now have 29 per cent support to the Tories’ 36. According to Forum projections, if an election were held tomorrow, Doug Ford would not be able to win enough seats for a majority.

“The increase in support for the Liberals is as drastic as it is sudden,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement.

Although 44 per cent of the 768 surveyed said they disapprove of the budget, specific elements seemed to have just enough appeal to swing the difference for the Liberals. Free daycare received a thumbs up from 53 per cent, while 74 per cent backed added spending to reduce overcrowding at hospitals.

The rise in Liberal fortunes appears to be due in part to the party sapping support from the NDP. Thursday’s poll showed that the popularity of the party of Andrea Horwath had diminished slightly to 26 per cent.


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Still, while the budget may have swung a few crucial voters for the Liberals, it’s safe to say that it failed to obtain broad appeal. A plurality (38 per cent) said it was bad for the economy, 45 per cent said it made them less likely to vote Liberal and 56 per cent said they favoured a balanced budget.

The Liberal surge is also benefitting from a plunge in Progressive Conservative support that does not appear to have recovered from when sex misconduct allegations first arose in January against then-leader Patrick Brown.

Just before the allegations broke, Forum Poll had the Progressive Conservatives with more than 40 per cent support, more than enough to usher them into office with a majority government.

Although the party experienced a brief spike after the departure of Brown, their fortunes appear to have fallen with the selection of Doug Ford as leader.

In mid-March, a Forum poll found that 48 per cent of Ontarians surveyed disapproved of Ford as Progressive Conservative leader.

The Liberals’ strongest base of support was in the 416 region of Toronto, with 39 per cent. The Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, saw their strongest support in Eastern Ontario (41 per cent) and the 905 region of Toronto (41 per cent).
 
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The Kathleen Wynne Liberals went big on spending, deficits and debt in Wednesday’s provincial budget.

The 2018 Ontario pre-election budget offers a dramatic increase in social spending –$750 a year to households run by seniors over 75, coverage of drug and dental benefits for those without workplace plans and 3% annual hikes in social assistance rates.

That’s just a start as the government anticipates increasing overall annual program spending to $155.8 billion over three years from $137.5 billion in 2017-18, which turns out to be the only year that the government will have balanced its books since 2008-09.



“We slayed the deficit, balanced the books and are projecting a $600 million surplus,” Sousa said in his budget speech. “But make no mistake … balancing the budget is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end.”

So that slain debt rises from the dead in 2018-19 with a projected $6.7-billion deficit, the first of six years where the government plans to spend more than it takes in.
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Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne (centre) sits next to Provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa (right) as the Ontario Provincial Government delivers its 2018 Budget , at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto, on Wednesday March 28, 2018. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

“People are saying we still need more support,” Sousa said, explaining the abandoned commitment to balanced budgets. “We decided to support them.”

Called A Plan for Care And Opportunity, the budget invests in hospitals, mental health, child care and dental benefits, he said.

A government’s last budget before an election campaign is typically a type of election platform, and most of the promised programs aren’t scheduled to be implemented until well after voters go to the polls.
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Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford (right) stands with former interim leader Vic Fedelli while taking questions from journalists during a pre-budget lock-up, as the Ontario Provincial Government prepares to deliver its 2018 Budget at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto, on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

PC leader Doug Ford said the budget brings in a substantial tax hike for 1.8 million taxpayers who’ll pay more provincial income tax and for businesses in general.

“Wynne is writing lots of cheques with your money; she’s making big promises with your hard-earned tax dollars … Her cheques are going to bounce,” Ford said. “People know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

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During the 2014 provincial election campaign, Wynne was able to gain NDP seats in Toronto and a majority government with a strong pitch for strategic voting, and this budget appears to be doubling down on that siren call to potential NDP voters.

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she doesn’t accept that this budget is one for voters on the political left.

“It left a lot of people out,” Horwath said, noting her own plan calls for free dental and prescription drug coverage for all.

The Liberal dental plan would cap annual maximums at $400 for singles, $600 for couples, plus $50 for each child, which Horwath dismissed as half a cavity a year.



The government plans to raise more money by hiking taxes on higher earners retroactively to Jan. 1, about $168 a year for someone earning $95,000 a year, and by increasing tobacco taxes by $4, plus HST, a carton, effective Thursday and by another $4 a carton in 2019.

After years of near flat-lining of hospital operating budgets, the 2018 fiscal plan injects an extra $822 million – a 4.5% increase.

And despite recently suggesting to youth that they should make sure to vote otherwise older people like herself would dominate the election, Wynne’s budget makes a point of saying it’s “deeply grateful” to seniors.

“We will provide up to $750 for every eligible household led by a senior 75 years old older to help offset the costs of maintaining their home,” Sousa said.
 
这其实就是自由党的竞选纲领了。
 
令人瞠目 - 民主大旗下的官腐 http://m.creaders.net/blog/user_blog_diary.php?did=319475
发表时间:2018-04-16 23:15:01
过去以为官腐是专制制度的产物。因为在那个环境中,执政的官员们无需担心民众监督,可以为所欲为。可是,最近揭露出来的在加拿大发生的一系列官腐事件,却颠覆了笔者原先的信念。原来,高手们也能在民主大旗下玩出炫目的官腐技艺!

E-Health

E-Health是2008年开始的計划,為了將全省的省民的医療資料电子化,除了有系統整理每一個病人的資料,也可以使医生能直接发出处方給各藥店,而無須每次由病人去医生那里得到处方。

该项目用了十年的时间,花费共$10亿元,但始终没有完成。然而项目开支惊人: 总共30名职员,却聘请了300名顾问。顾问的报酬达每小时$300元以上,有人一天领取了$2700元的报酬,还有个顾问五个月领取了$19万元报酬。

Ornge空中救护队

Ornge是安省的空中救援队公司。本来是针对偏远地方的紧急医救状况成立的。最早Ornge花费$2800万加币购置了11架二手飞机,不久,这批飞机以$800万被低价售出。随后,Ornge购置了12架意大利直升机,虽然只需要9架。有两家飞机根本没装医疗器械,剩下的10架被发现舱体内结构狭窄,不适合进行紧急抢救,再一次贱卖。最近一次,Ornge购置了10架 Pilatus PC-122型直升机,当然只需要6架。2015年的时候,把库存的2架卖掉。终于,人们明白了Ornge不是救护队,其实是买卖“二手直升机”的。

此项目花费纳税人$9亿3千万元,最终只有一架飞机可以使用,几年来事故造成病人和医务人员40人死亡。

整个项目是由20个利益相关的公司组成的财团所控制。安省政府资助该项目$7.3亿加币。前CEO Chris Mazza 年薪$140万,在任六年期间,总收入$930万,还有指控从意大利购买飞机收回扣$700万。而這位自由党的朋友Mazza,他觉得自己坑纳稅人不夠,还控告省府,說省府欠他$100万元的紅利。也不知道加拿大有没有渎职罪?

天然气电厂事件

2009年,安省自由党政府计划在奥克维尔及密西沙加建两座天然气发电厂,却遭当地居民一致的强烈反对。2011年10月省选前,自由党民调支持率节节败退,甚至被安省保守党超越。自由党被逼无奈,于选举前一个星期突然宣布取消兴建发电厂的计划。在10月6日的省选中,安省自由党当选少数政府。关闭两个电厂换取了自由党四个席位[1]。

自由党撤掉两个已经动工的天然气发电站的决定,引起了安省人民的极大怀疑。反对党联合组织委员会进行调查,但自由党拒绝提供相关文件。麦坚迪称,尽管对撤掉电厂昂贵代价表示遗憾,但他支持撤掉决定。

为了掩盖事实,当时的安省省长麦坚迪的幕僚长利文斯顿和副幕僚长米勒(Laura Miller)花费1万元雇用了米勒的男朋友、电脑专家费斯特 (Peter Faist),后者用利文斯顿提供的密码,进入省长办公室内,删除至少20部电脑硬盘的资料。

最初估计损失拆掉发电站需要$2.3亿加币,最终损失11亿加币,而其中一部分给承建商的毁约费其实是不用付的[2]。事情曝光后,时任安省省长的麦坚迪在任期未满的情况下突然辞职。2017年,麦坚迪的两名高级助手涉嫌蓄意删除有关资料被予以逮捕。

大中报综合讯[2]:根据环球邮报的报道,2018年4月11日,前安省省长麦坚迪的幕僚长、现年65岁的利文斯顿(David Livingston)被判处四个月的监禁和一年的缓刑,包括100小时社区服务。

令人咋舌的Hydro One高薪

私有化的Hydro One 总裁Schmidt 肆意给自己开支票,2017年收入高达$620万,是其它省份同职的10倍。

下面是各省Hydro CEO收入对比图:

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安省Hydro One总裁的收入是其它省份同级总裁的10倍以上!

他是2015年报8月31日被任命的。当年的4个月里他的收入是$130万,而其前任在2014年的总收入只是$74.5万。更令人咋舌的是他给自己2016至2017年的年度收入增长$170万,即37.8%的幅度。面对安省电费不断高涨,人民怨声载道的糟糕电力市场,拿这样的高薪,有这么高的年度增长,是否合理?

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从上面Hydro One 一路下跌的股票现实人们就该有判断了(图中蓝色阴影显示的是该公司的股票价格,紫色曲线是TSX指数,代表了加拿大经济发展)。

对这个问题,执政党的回答是: 公司已经私有化,政府无权干涉。可他们没告诉选民的事实是: 政府只是出售了50%的股份,依然是有决策权的大股东。难道这个股东大头对聘用的CEO报酬没有决策权?

CEO的薪酬由理事会(board)决定,而理事会是由股东投票选出的[7]。根据网上公布的结果,Hydro One 私有化过程分三次在多伦多股市发布股票进行的。到目前为止,出售了50.1%的股份,省政府依然拥有49.9%的股份。因为三次发售股票,都是在多伦多证劵公司(Toronto Stoke Market)上进行的,能形成超过50%的对抗力量的可能性极小,或几乎不可能。所以,拥有49.9%股份的最大股东安省政府是可以决定/改正Hydro One 的不恰当高薪。

其实,当初韦恩政府决定私有化Hydro One时,大部分民众是反对的。CBC的报道说,有组织起诉韦恩政府这项决定是为了回报捐献者,以便保持捐献渠道流通[8]。Global and Mail 在2015年就有一篇报道: 一个银行举办的与Hydro One 私有化有关的活动,直接为两个自由党内阁成员,其中一个是财政厅长,筹得$16万的捐款,而银行在私有化过程中获利近$3千万!

阳光名单不阳光

这是亲民的保守党领袖Doug Ford的评价,是否中肯? 让我们回归一下阳光名单的历史。

1996年保守党执政期间制定的《安省公职人员薪酬曝光法》(Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act,简称PSSDA)规定,在安省政府或相应的公职机关工作的人员,凡是上一年挣了$10万加元以上的,在每年3月的第5个工作日之前,都要上报,叫做“阳光名单”(Annual Sunshine List)。每年3月31日之前,安省政府要公布这个名单。当年仅有4576人上榜,到2017年,名单已经急速膨胀到131,741人,还不包括被强行私有化出去的Hydro One 中的约3800人,共增长了27.8倍。

那么,这样的增长是否合理呢? 让我们来比较人口普查中揭示的安省民众收入的增长。由于在过去的历史报告中,个人收入没有$10万以上的栏目,笔者仅能用住户收入来比较。下表列出了1996~2016年收入$10万以上的住户数目和阳光名单数目。


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在这二十年中,收入达$10万以上的住户增加了4.2倍,而同期阳光名单却增长了27.8倍! 这样的巨大差距是因为政府变得庞大了,还是政府雇员变富了? 这样的名单够不够耀眼?

参考文献
[1] "New gas plants under scrutiny in wake of trial", The Star, Jan. 25, 2018
https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...-plants-under-scrutiny-in-wake-of-trial.html9

[2] "前安省自由党政府省长幕僚长因销毁丑闻证据锒铛入狱",大中报, 2018/4/14
http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SmMmIF1fOtneKLUsOpIiDg
[3] "Hydro One CEO's $6.2M salary outrageous, PCs say", Toronto Sun, March 29, 2018, http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/hydro-one-ceos-6-2m-salary-outrageous-pcs-say
[4] "Minister: Hydro One CEO $4.5M salary 'not part of the equation' of bill cuts"
CP24, March 30, 2017, https://www.cp24.com/news/minister-...t-part-of-the-equation-of-bill-cuts-1.3347637
[5] "Wynne government wins in Hydro One privatization appeals case"
CBC, Mar 27, 2018, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hydro-one-privatization-no-bad-faith-1.4595524
[6] "Hydro One"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_One
[7] "The Board Of Directors – Selecting, Electing & Evolving"
https://avc.com/2012/03/the-board-of-directors-selecting-electing-evolving/
[8] "Hydro One players paid for exclusive access to Ontario cabinet ministers"
Globe and Mail, March 29, 2016, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...to-ontario-cabinet-ministers/article29427906/

"One of the banks that ran the lucrative privatization of Hydro One promoted a $7,500-per-person fundraiser for the two Ontario provincial cabinet ministers in charge of the sale, The Globe and Mail has learned. The event on Dec. 7, 2015, which featured Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, appears to have raised about $165,000 for the Liberals. ... ... Collectively, banks in the syndicate made nearly $29.3-million from the Hydro One privatization."
 
支持屎克郎爱屎球儿!:D
 
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