Mr. Speaker, in the Ontario election Mike Harris and the Conservatives are claiming they can balance the province's budget while massively reducing revenues through a reckless 30 per cent, or is it now 35 per cent, income tax cut.
In 1993 Mike Harris said he could balance the books in three years. In 1994 he said in four years. Now he says it will take until 2001. That is six years and six budgets. Mike Harris cannot add.
The Tory plan contains billions of dollars of errors, omissions and exaggerations. There are billions not accounted for. Ontarians must know what Mike Harris is afraid to tell them, that he will gut the province's social programs to find the extra money. Mike Harris says: "Vote for me now and I will tell you later what I am going to do to social programs". That is being dishonest.
Lyn McLeod will balance the budget within her government's mandate. Liberals are prepared to be accountable to voters if they fail instead of putting tough decisions off into the future. Only the Ontario Liberals have a realistic plan to balance the province's budget without devastating social programs.