Does Premier Kathleen Wynne even believe the things she says? Do you?

BY JERRY AGAR, TORONTO SUN

Does Premier Kathleen Wynne even believe the things she says? Do you?

Perhaps she does, since she leads a province with a multiparty system that allows her to win a majority government with less than 40% of the vote.

A province where she is the leader favoured by the bloated public sector unions, not to mention facing a weak opposition.

And so, like the leader of some tin-pot dictatorship, perhaps Wynne hears nothing but the sound of her own voice and has come to believe it.

On budget day last week, Wynne spoke with Ryan Doyle on Newstalk1010, were I work.

She touted her, “sound fiscal management.” Beg pardon?

Ontario’s debt is more than twice that of the state of California. But, of course, California has a larger economy than Ontario.

In 2014 the Fraser Institute reported, “The gross debt in the form of bonds is 7.6% of California’s economy, while it is a whopping 40.9% of Ontario’s economy. Put differently, as a share of the economy, Ontario’s debt is more than five times larger than California’s.”

The Fraser Institute reported, “Ontarians currently owe CA$20,166 per person compared to US$3,844 for Californians, which is more than five times the per-person level of debt.”

When the Liberals took power in 2003, Ontario’s public debt was $138.8 billion.

Now it’s $298.9 billion, a 115% increase.

Wynne’s new budget is long on infrastructure spending, which is sorely needed, but short on details on where that money will come from.

Unable to balance the budget, the Liberals have no money for debt retirement.

The day after the budget, Moody’s Investors Service issued a report titled, “Moody’s Continues to See Risks in Ontario’s Budget.”

“We remain attentive to the fact deficits have shown little progress in the past few years, and in fact have increased from 8.1% of revenues in 2012/13 to 9.2% in 2014/15”, noted Michael Yake, a Moody’s VP and lead analyst for the province of Ontario.

He continued: “Achieving the budget’s goal of reducing the deficit to CA$8.5 billion (6.8% of revenue) in 2015/16 would represent a positive step, but the return to balanced budgets by 2017/18 still faces considerable risks in our view.”

That’s not as sunny an outlook as the one projected by the Wynne government.

A casual dismissal of the private sector by Ontario’s premier is illustrative of her beliefs regarding business and competition.

When Doyle asked about the new Ontario beer tax she’s imposing ($100 million annually) Wynne said we know from research if alcohol sales are privatized, prices goes up. The example most often used is Alberta.

Except studies by the Fraser Institute disagree, which also show the number of outlets, varieties of beer available and employment increased.

Indeed, looking to our southern neighbours, who are within easy driving distance of Queen’s Park, the cost of 30 cans of Labatt beer on special at Consumer’s Beverages in Buffalo, N.Y. is $19.99 this week.

At The Beer Store in Ontario, 24 cans cost $46.50. Road trip, anyone?

It isn’t the private sector that has driven the cost of alcohol through the proverbial roof, the government has.

Basically, Wynne gives us bad fiscal management and a delusional view of how the private market works.

Heaven help us.​

Liars: The McGuinty-Wynne Record, by Daniel Dickin

Product Description

About the Book

Daniel Dickin sees a clear split in Ontario’s wealth and prosperity. For the first 136 years following Confederation, Ontario was known for its balanced budgets, responsible spending, and prudent political, fiscal, and economic policies. These policies made Ontario the “economic powerhouse” of Canada and the envy of the other provinces.

Unfortunately, all of that changed when Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals took the reigns of power in Ontario in 2003. The 136 years of substantial progress and good governance were thrown to the side in favour of expensive government experiments, reckless green energy programs, record-setting deficit spending, a ballooning debt and scandal after scandal after scandal – along with all the lies to cover it up.

While the average Ontario citizen benefitted under the Big Blue Conservative governments of the 20th century, the only people benefiting from the Ontario Liberals are the public sector unions and Liberal Party elites.

Kathleen Wynne took over Dalton McGuinty’s legacy in 2013 and had the opportunity define her new government. She had the opportunity to get Ontario back on track and set herself apart from the scandal-plagued McGuinty past. Unfortunately, Kathleen Wynne only continued McGuinty’s legacy of scandals and lies, digging Ontario deeper into the hole of higher debt, more taxes, and fewer jobs.

Dickin’s book provides the hardhitting analysis and inconvenient facts that have been public information for years yet never organized into one strong, cohesive argument. This book presents a compelling argument for the real legacy of Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario Liberal Party – and it isn’t pretty – they are liars who have covered up the mismanagement and derailment of a once great and prosperous Ontario.

About the Author

Daniel Dickin is a grassroots community leader and self-described political junkie. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in law and political science from Carleton University in 2011. He has worked on federal and provincial election campaigns, including in Dalton McGuinty’s former riding of Ottawa South. Daniel is also a legal and political affairs columnist for the Prince Arthur Herald and Huffington Post Canada.

Wynne math: Hydro One is worth about $9 billion. It owes $5 billion — so the government will only net about $4 billion

BY CHRISTINA BLIZZARD

FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, Toronto Sun Newspaper

TORONTO  - Now we know what it feels like to have our assets whupped.

Yep, Premier Kathleen Wynne revealed Thursday this province will sell off 60% of Hydro One — the giant utility that owns the transmission system in Ontario.

And, oh, by the way, we’ll be able to buy beer in the grocery store.

And, oh, by the way, the price of beer is going up.

The province’s privatization guru, former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark, revealed details of his report Thursday on how to cash in on billions of dollars worth of Crown assets.

Oddly enough, when it comes to liquor, the province hasn’t touched the asset it owns — the LCBO. What it did was open up the asset it doesn’t own — the Beer Store — for competition.

The government will allow 450 grocery stores to sell beer in direct competition to the 450 Beer Stores already in existence.

And while Hydro One isn’t as sexy, by far the biggest part of Thursday’s announcement was the sale of the giant utility at fire sale prices. It’s worth $9 billion. It owes $5 billion — so the government will only net $4 billion.

Clark said the government will have an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Hydro One and incrementally will sell off up to 60% of it. In his preliminary report last October, he specifically said the government would not have an IPO on Hydro One because he didn’t want Bay St. financiers cleaning up.

So now they’re handing over this massive asset for the Liberals to sell. Yes, this is the same Liberal Party that negotiated the Ornge air ambulance privatization boondoggle. Yes, this is the same Liberal Party that scrapped two gas plants being built by the private sector. Taxpayers got a $1-billion bill for that — and the companies building the plants made out very nicely, thank you.

What chance is there that taxpayers are going to see value for money this time?

“It’s a joke to think the Liberals have any ability whatsoever to do right by the people of Ontario in this deal,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“They haven’t done right by the people of Ontario yet when they cook up these harebrained schemes.” More

Ontario will hike beer tax, sell majority of Hydro One to fund infrastructure

Ontario Drivers Overpay $4 billion on Auto Insurance While Company Profits Soar: Report

Source: News for Ontario's Ninety-Nine percent

This entry was posted in Auto insurance on April 11, 2015 by Bob Anderson.

Because of a flawed government formula, Ontario drivers paid out between $3 billion to $4 billion more than they should have on auto insurance premiums between 2001 and 2013, according to a study released Friday.

In 2013 alone, Ontario drivers may have over-paid by $840 million, according to the study by Fred Lazar and Eli Prisman, economics professors at the York University Schulich School of Business.

The study was done for the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, a group representing Ontario’s personal injury lawyers.

Ontario’s no-fault benefits were significantly reduced by the government in 2010 and profits in the industry have increased considerably since then.

The 2010 cuts resulted in the maximum for medical and rehabilitation benefits for most victims injured in accidents reduced to $3,500 from $100,000. For serious injuries the maximum was reduced from $100,000 to $50,000.

In just one year, between 2010 and 2011, industry payments to accident victims for no-fault benefits fell 50%.

How Profitable Is The Auto Industry?

At the heart of the report’s controversial findings is the appropriate measure that should be used to set the allowable return on investment for auto insurance companies.

The report suggests that there is significant room to reduce rates by as much as 7.9 per cent based on 2013 data about profit in the insurance industry.

The study looked in detail at how the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), which regulates auto insurance on behalf of the Government of Ontario, calculates the allowed profit in the industry.

The authors of the report found that a KMPG study which the FSCO used to set a return on premiums rate for the industry was flawed, as it underestimated industry profitability.

The FSCO sets a return on premium benchmark of six per cent in the auto industry. That is the equivalent of a 12 per cent return on equity, the study said. More

Debt retirement charge on hydro bills raises $11.5B to pay original $7.8B

By Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - A decision 16 years ago to divide Ontario Hydro into several different companies resulted in a new charge that's still on all electricity bills and a multibillion-dollar debt that critics warn will keep driving up rates for years to come.

The residual stranded debt stems from the 1999 breakup of the province's giant electrical utility, which had $38.1 billion in debt, mostly from building nuclear plants in the 1970s and '80s.

Only a portion of that debt was supported by the assets of the new hydro companies — Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) — leaving $20.9 billion in so-called stranded debt.

Households and businesses paid out more than $11.5 billion in a residual stranded debt charge on their electricity bills between 2002 and 2014 — the last year for which statistics were available — with the outstanding balance still over $2.5 billion.

"For years we were collecting a debt retirement charge but we never retired any," said Bryne Purchase, an associate professor of economics at Queen's University and a former deputy minister of finance under the Tories.

"This is the sleight of hand," added Purchase, who was also deputy minister of energy under the Liberal government.

"They never crystallized those numbers, never said 'this is how much we're going to collect and once we've collected that we can retire the debt retirement charge.'"

When Ontario Hydro was broken up, the government expected $13.1 billion in revenues and payments in lieu of taxes from OPG and Hydro One, which reduced the residual stranded debt to $7.8 billion.

A debt retirement charge of 0.7 cents a kilowatt hour was added to all electricity bills starting in 2002, which raised about $940 million a year.

The residual stranded debt, administered by the Ontario Electricity Financing Corp. (OEFC), increased to $11.9 billion in 2004, after the previous Tory government froze electricity prices in May 2002, which the Liberals, who took office in 2003, did not lift until March 2004.

"We have a stranded debt because of mistakes made by the previous Conservative government, frankly," said Finance Minister Charles Sousa.

The rate freeze cost about $900 million, but the government also had to lower its "over-estimation" of expected OPG revenues, adding $4.4 billion to the stranded debt in 2004. It increased again in 2011 to $5.8 billion from $5.4 billion because of lower returns from Hydro One and OPG and because of OPG's high pension costs.

"When the revenues fall, then the residual stranded debt goes up accordingly because they have to make up for the difference," said Sousa.

Energy sector analyst Tom Adams said "there's no way to confirm the truth or otherwise" about the government's statements on the residual stranded debt.

"There's a huge transparency problem here," said Adams. "The key missing ingredient is the underlying financial plans behind their projections around the date when the residual stranded debt will be paid off." ... More

More from the Nanny Nation

There is something fundamentally wrong when major policy decisions are made solely on the basis of getting a political party re-elected. We’ve seen it in Ontario, i.e. the gas plant closure, and now Harper’s cynical budget proposals – a sort of whistling while Rome burns.

By Dene Moore | Daily Brew – Thu, 2 Apr, 2015

The much-delayed federal budget will finally be released later this month but what can Canadian taxpayers expect?

A general election is scheduled for October – if not sooner –and traditionally, the pre-election budget is a sweet treat for voters from a government hungry for their support.

But tanking oil prices have left Finance Minister Joe Oliver with a fairly bare cupboard this year.

The message from most is: Don’t expect much on April 21st.

“He’s already answered the big question, which is will the budget be balanced,” Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, tells Yahoo Canada News.

The federation applauds the promise of a budget in the black following seven years of deficit spending.

Wudrick hopes there is no massive new spending.

“It’s an election year. In an election year, governments of all stripes are tempted to spend lots of money because they see it as a way to curry favour right before a vote,” he says.

“We hope they resist the temptation to do that.”

Much already announced

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already announced what are likely the only goodies to be expected.

In October, Harper unveiled the Family Tax Cut, a tax credit worth up to $2,000 for couples with children under the age of 18.

An eleventh-hour fulfilment of the income-splitting promised in the last election campaign, the Family Tax Cut allows one spouse to transfer up to $50,000 of taxable income to a spouse in a lower income tax bracket.

Harper also announced increases to the Universal Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Expense Deduction.

The Universal Child Care Benefit will jump from $100 a month for children under age six to $160 a month, and parents will now be able to claim $60 a month for children aged six to 17.

The Child Care Expense Deduction jumps from $7,000 to $8,000 and the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit doubles, to up to $1,000 a year...More

See Also:

http://gerry-stopthebull.blogspot.com/2014/07/tales-from-nanny-nation-part-ii-baby.html

http://gerry-stopthebull.blogspot.com/2014/06/tales-from-nanny-nation.html

http://gerry-stopthebull.blogspot.com/2014/10/news-from-nanny-state-uncle-toms-5b.html

Save Bala Falls

"If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere..."

This is the story of a David-and-Goliath-struggle to save a precious community resource. The ‘David’ in this case is the residents of a small community in Northern Ontario, and the ‘Goliath’ is the might of their own Provincial Government being used against them for profit.

Bala is a Canadian community famous for the Bala Falls. It is located in Muskoka Lakes Township in Ontario, where Lake Muskoka empties into the Moon River. It is considered one of the hubs of cottage country located north of Toronto. Thus, its year-round population of several hundred is increased by thousands of seasonal residents and weekend day-trippers during summer months. It is known as the Cranberry Capital of Ontario, as the province’s largest cranberry farms, Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh and Wahta Iroquis Growers, are located nearby.

Why it matters

Carved out of the Canadian Shield, Bala Falls is located at the west end of Lake Muskoka (approximately two hours north of Toronto) where the lake’s waters spill into Moon River and eventually into Georgian Bay. Part of an important cultural landscape, the falls are a physical landmark that define Bala’s identity and which are central to its recreational and tourism-based economy. The historically important Portage Landing on the north side of Burgess Island has been a portage point for First Nations and later for the community of Bala, tourists, YM-YWCA campers and cottagers. The landmark boat livery business, Purks Place has operated continuously since 1906. It is historically interconnected with the portage landing on the west of Burgess Island for water access to Moon River. The only other structure on Burgess Island is the Stone Church, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Why it’s endangered

In December 2004, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources released an RFP for the development of a hydroelectric generating station on approximately one hectare of Crown land adjacent to Bala’s north dam as part of the province’s green energy program. Swift River Energy Ltd (SREL) proposes to build a 4-5 megawatt run-of-river water power facility that will include:

the excavation of an approach channel immediately above Bala’s North dam; the installation of an intake and a concrete powerhouse structure abutting the north Bala falls; a tailrace channel to return water to the Moon River some 40 metres from the base of the North dam’s waterfall.

Community concerns are focused on the conservation of the natural features of the falls central to Bala’s identity and its natural resources (water and water flow, foraging and spawning habitat for fish and invertebrate species, and identified heritage trees) as well as its cultural features. Concern is also focused on potential damage to the Stone Church related to blasting shock and vibration.

What you can do

Listen to the following summary, and then visit to “Save Bala Falls” website. From there it is up to you, but please support the people of Bala in any way you can.

Thank you.