Hudak, Arnott issue debt warning in advance of provincial budget

NEWS RELEASE
Ted Arnott, MPP
Wellington-Halton Hills
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2013

Hudak, Arnott issue debt warning in advance of provincial budget

(Queen’s Park) – Ontario can turn the corner toward more jobs and a stronger economy, but first the
government must start living within its means to restore its creditworthiness, PC Leader Tim Hudak
said today in Stittsville.

Responding today from his Queen’s Park office, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott agreed.

“Throughout the years I’ve served in the Legislature, I’ve called upon successive provincial
Governments to keep their spending in check, balance their books, and stop adding to the provincial
debt,” said Mr. Arnott. “My constituents in Wellington-Halton Hills expect nothing less.”

Mr. Hudak’s statements precede the upcoming provincial budget, expected later this month.

“This budget will be watched by the credit rating agencies for a plan to reduce spending, balance the
budget and bring down debt,” Mr. Hudak said.

After the 2012 McGuinty Liberal Government’s budget was tabled in the Legislature, the debt rating
of the province of Ontario was placed on a credit watch by one agency and downgraded by another.

“That’s because there was no credible plan to reduce a decade of overspending,” Mr. Hudak
explained.

Mr. Arnott added that downgrades in the province’s credit rating generally lead to an increase in the
cost of borrowing for the province.

“Ontario once had a AAA credit rating, meaning we were able to borrow at the most favourable
interest rates possible,” Mr. Arnott noted. “In recent years, because of irresponsible fiscal
management by the provincial government and other factors, we no longer have that status.”

Longer term, Mr. Arnott warned, interest rates have nowhere to go but up, which will further increase
the province’s borrowing costs, and crowd out available funding for important programs that we all
value. Job creation will suffer as well, as investors flee a province in a downward spiral.

“If we don’t have a credible, honest, and realistic plan to balance the provincial budget in the next
few years, we will simply continue to dig the hole even deeper. For that we will have to answer to
our children and grandchildren,” Mr. Arnott concluded.

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