MPP Arnott tables resolution calling for commitment to debt repayment

NEWS RELEASE
Ted Arnott, MPP
Wellington – Halton Hills
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2012

MPP Arnott tables resolution calling for commitment to debt
repayment
(Queen’s Park) – Debt and deficit reduction need to be higher priorities for the Provincial Government,
says Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.

Mr. Arnott said that the message he has been hearing from constituents is clear: “Over the past week,
I’ve started to receive feedback from my newsletter and overwhelmingly, the people of Wellington-Halton
Hills are telling me that debt and deficit reduction should be the number one Government priority.”

This morning, Mr. Arnott tabled a resolution in the Ontario Legislature, calling upon the Government to
commit to a plan to begin paying down its debt after the budget is balanced. The resolution reads as
follows:

That in the opinion of this House, after the provincial budget is balanced, the Government should
begin paying down the provincial debt by creating a new line item in the budget, committing to
making a payment on the principal of the provincial debt of at least 2.5 percent of the program
spending of that fiscal year.

“Paying interest on the debt is the third highest provincial expenditure. We will be paying $10.6 billion in
interest next year,” Mr. Arnott noted. “That’s not even beginning to pay down the principal.”

In more than 21 years in the Ontario 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 Liberal Government voted
down Mr. Arnott’s 2003 resolution calling for a debt retirement plan.

However, Mr. Arnott questioned the Liberals’ commitment to getting spending under control.

“On page 199 of the Ontario Budget Papers, it shows that over the next year, the provincial debt will rise
from $237.6 billion to $260.4 billion,” Mr. Arnott pointed out. “What’s more, their overall spending will
actually increase, and the deficit will still be $15.2 billion. And they claim they are cutting back?”

Based on the Government’s current budget projections, the net debt per capita – in effect, the amount of
Provincial debt that each Ontarian owes – will rise from $17,766 to $19,243, this year to next. It was
$11,339 when Dalton McGuinty came into office in 2003. (pg. 198, 199 of the 2012 Ontario Budget
Papers)

“I don’t believe the McGuinty Liberals will ever balance the budget, but the next Government will have to,
and should begin paying down the debt,” he concluded. “We can’t just keep spending money that we
don’t have and leave the bill for future generations.”

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Ted Arnott, MPP Wellington-Halton Hills, 416-325-3880, ted.arnott@pc.ola.org