with every new poll showing @fordnation as Ontario's next premier, we get endlessly creative pundits seeking to convince us that if you look at the numbers from a certain angle, with the light shining a certain way, it could be a really close race https://t.co/QAEHTvIAGu
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) May 10, 2018
Wynneing!
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-auditor-general-shatters-the-fiscal-fantasy
Lysyk said Wynne’s budget underestimates government deficits for the next three years by $16.6 billion, or 84 per cent, for two reasons.
First, it fails to reflect the true cost of its scheme to temporarily reduce electricity rates, known as the Fair Hydro Plan.
Second, the government improperly treated surpluses in the Ontario teacher and civil service pension plans as assets, since it can’t access that money without union permission.
“When expenses are understated, the perception is created that government has more money available than it actually does,” Lysyk wrote.
“Therefore, more money will need to be borrowed to pay for the unrecorded expenses, even when government reports an annual surplus or a balanced budget.
“A perception is also created of an improving trend in the relationship between the government’s financial obligations and its capacity to raise funds to meet them when the burden of net debt is actually increasing.”
h/t David Southam who adds a few comments of his own.
Wynneing!
Moody’s downgraded Ontario’s credit rating today from “stable” to “negative” and how some warnings about the books in the future. The reason for this downgrade? The Wynne budget that ramped up spending in a bid to stay in power.
Wynneing!
I accept Kathleen Wynne’s challenge to three televised debates. Let’s do the first one outside the jail where the senior Liberal operative will be spending 4-months.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) April 11, 2018
Wynneing!
Wynneing!
Spare the rod, spoil the labour minister.
Wynneing!
A $650,000 logo is never a $650,000 logo.
Wynneing!
Close to three dozen people will be out of work later this year when Chemours Canada Company ceases production at its Maitland site, says the union representing the workers.
“Last month, @chemours announced a new $150M plant in Delaware…”
h/t Maz2
Wynneing!
Meanwhile back in Liberal land, a story likely to be buried by 10 year old he-made-a-pass at me allegations.
Campbell Soup Company says it’s shuttering its 87-year-old Toronto manufacturing facility within the next 18 months, impacting 380 jobs, as the food purveyor gets set to relocate it Canadian headquarters to a new location.
The company says the Toronto closure is necessary to improve its operational efficiency, citing a challenging retail environment that has seen volume declines of canned soup in North America.[…]
The company says soup and broth production at the Toronto facility will be transitioned in phases over the next 18 months to three plants in North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
Wynneing!
A former senior Ontario Liberal staffer has been convicted in what the judge called a deliberate “scorched earth” attempt to destroy government emails or records related to cancelled gas plants.
Crown Tom Lemon said he will seek a custodial sentence for David Livingston, the former chief of staff to premier Dalton McGuinty, who was found guilty Friday of attempted mischief to data and unauthorized use of a computer.
I initially loaded a Brian Lilley live stream, but that didn’t work so well. A timeline of the Ontario Gas Plant scandal.
Clock Girl
Who is the woman in the red hijab?
Wynneing!
After Premier Kathleen Wynne rammed through new legislation hiking the minimum wage by 21 per cent at the start of 2018, without conducting any impact assessment and going against her old pledge to not raise it above inflation and giving only six-months notice, the CBC had the perfect news report to whip up proletarian anger at the business community, which would deflect blame from the unpopular Liberal premier.
Wynneing!
“Breaks will no longer be paid. A 9 hour shift will be paid for 8 hours and 20 minutes.”
“These changes are due to the increase of wages to $14.00 minimum wage on January 1, 2018, then $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2019, as well as the lack of assistance and financial help from our Head Office and from the Government.”
Wynneing!
It’s their nature: Could the Ontario government actually lose money selling pot?
Meanwhile… hahahahahaha!
Bribery
Unprecedented case could affect Liberals’ political future
The potential political consequences of a sitting premier testifying in open court on allegations her most trusted adviser and a prominent Liberal fundraiser bribed a would-be Liberal candidate cannot be overstated.
Leaving aside this trial, the Liberals have foolishly, recklessly and repeatedly treated Ontario as their own fiefdom to rule as they see fit — and the rules be damned.
Wynning!
Yes, the Ontario election is ten months away, but if the PC’s are at 50% in Toronto….
However:
“If anything is going to be dangerous to affecting his base, it’s going to be that,” Maggi said. Among PC supporters, 47 per cent strongly or somewhat disapproved of Brown’s plan to implement a carbon tax. Forty per cent approved and 13 per cent didn’t know how to feel about it.
From NWC
And so it begins.
Ontariowe
Wynneing!
Electricity prices to soar after four years, says secret Liberal cabinet document…
Wynneing!
Once boasting one of the continent’s lowest electricity rates, Ontario today has some of the highest and that has many industrial companies planning to move at least some operations to the United States.
“The government treats us like bourgeois sweatshop operators who have to be stopped,” said Bamford, who has organized dozens of medium-sized companies into the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers of Ontario. “All the businesses are terrified of the government. My husband said, ‘Well, do you just want to pick up and go?’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess I gotta just stay and fight.’ I feel like I’m the Norma Rae of manufacturing.”
Automatic Coating’s electricity bill has more than doubled in the past decade. Its bill for last November was $49,209.68. The first line is for electricity: $6,577.93. The second line is much harder to explain: it is the euphemistic Global Adjustment charge: 217,165 kWh at 11.6 cents each for a total of $25,223.73.
The Global Adjustment contains many different costs, including Ontario’s payments to solar and wind energy makers at far more than the market rate, the cost to sell excess power to U.S. states at a loss, and even the cost of replacing light bulbs with LED bulbs.
These people are nuts. And so is any government that follows in their footsteps.