MPP Arnott denounces Liberals for soaring debt levels

NEWS RELEASE
Ted Arnott, MPP
Wellington – Halton Hills
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2011

MPP Arnott denounces Liberals for soaring debt levels
(Wellington-Halton Hills) – The McGuinty Liberals have an addiction to debt that threatens Ontario’s
financial future, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott is warning. At a time when U.S. debt is
causing political and economic turmoil, he believes attention will soon turn to Ontario’s ballooning
debt – a debt that now stands at over $236 billion.

“Our party maintains that they’re on track to double the provincial debt by next year,” said Mr. Arnott
of the Liberal government since their election in 2003. “It’s a shameful record, because we know the
government deals in real money – our tax dollars.”

[1] This year the provincial government is projecting a deficit of at least $16.3 billion. That translates to
$1.86 million an hour, every hour of every day, which amounts to more than $31,000 a minute or [2] about $516 a second.

Mr. Arnott compared the government’s borrowing habits to those of a household.

“Suppose you borrow $100,000 with no plan to pay it down. Times are good, so, over an eight-year
period, you borrow another $100,000 without paying down a nickel of your debt,” he said. “But then
you hit hard times. So you stick your head in the sand and keep spending over and above what you
can afford. At some point, you can expect your banker to give you a call.”

Unless Ontario gets its financial house in order, Mr. Arnott believes, that call is coming soon.

In his 21 years in the Legislature, Mr. Arnott has often raised alarm bells on the provincial debt. It
was the focus of his maiden speech in the Legislature as an MPP in 1990, and the subject of two
separate motions he introduced in 1997 and 2003. The Liberals voted down Mr. Arnott’s 2003
resolution calling for a debt repayment plan. They knew they had big plans to spend.

“The Liberal debt problem is one thing, but it’s coincided with billions in new Liberal taxes and fees,”
said Mr. Arnott. “If they’re re-elected this fall, they’ll choose to increase taxes again. They’ve done it
before and they’ll do it again.”

Tim Hudak is committed to eliminating Ontario’s deficit and returning to a balanced budget by 2017-
18. He has said that if elected, each year he would look to find savings of two cents on every dollar
the government spends outside of health and education. Health and education investment would
increase, guaranteeing the services we all need.

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Ted Arnott, MPP
Phone: 416-325-3880
Email: ted.arnott@pc.ola.org

[1] Source: 2011 Ontario Budget Papers.
[2] Calculations based on a projected deficit of $16.3 billion, divided by the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds in a year.