Opinion: The provincial treasury is never as bare, nor as bottomless, as politicians like to pretend or unionists tend to insist, reggcohn writes.
Ontario just posted an utterly unexpected budget surplus, leaving the province $2.1 billion in the black.Ford’s Tories have been crying poor since taking power four years ago. They quickly imposed a sweeping one per cent pay cap on teachers, nurses and most workers on the public payroll.
The budgetary reality is not so black and white, despite errant predictions of red ink. In fact, the treasury is never as bare, nor as bottomless, as politicians like to pretend or unionists tend to insist.Tax revenues can go up or down, depending on the economics or the politics. Spending can be boosted or cut back, depending on the elections and selections of politicians.comes thanks to a rapid recovery after two years of pent-up pandemic forces.
Inflation has soared as high as 10 per cent, so why not? The government has billions of dollars to spare, does it not?Yes, rising inflation is lowering our individual purchasing power. But higher interest rates are also boosting the cost of borrowing to levels not seen in recent memory. It’s not impossible to dig out of that debt hole — or more precisely, a debt servicing sink hole. Fear of fiscal failure can force politicians to raise taxes while getting spending under control, but without that motivation they are prone to cutting taxes, then triggering deficits and ultimately slashing spending while freezing salaries.
Which raises the question of what’s a fair wage — whether minimum wage, living wage, teaching wage or nursing wage. Over time, Ford changed tack with workers. With an election looming, he stopped demonizing elected labour leaders and started deferring to them, while belatedly raising the minimum wage.
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