Lefties will be pleased with the extra tax on energy. Tell that to a senior couple when they have to pay the oil and electricity bills.

Higher tax in gasoline will be bad for tourism. Hurrah for premier Pinocchio!
His nose is getting longer and longer. I already knew in the (good old) Harris days that “Dalton is not up to the job.” He has been proving that ever since he became premier.

did you expect anything else from the TAX & SPEND Liberals - Where in hell is Mike Harris when you need him?

Who would have thought that Bob Rae would not be the worst premier in Ontario history. This one certainly is. His policies (or lack thereof) have killed this province. When every other province harmonized their sales taxes, they reduced their rate to accompany new things being taxed. Not McGuinty. All he could do was add 8 + 5 and come up with 13. (Where is the complaining about that!!!) Currently companies can keep 5% of their PST collected (up to $1500) Will that will be lost as well - and where is the complaining about that. Currently corporations with small balances owed to them actually have to ask for refund cheques. Otherwise their money will be held back. With the amalgamation of Ontario corporate tax with CRA, how many millions will be scooped by McGuinty from this. Speaking of the amalgamation of the Ontario corporate tax with CRA (which was excellent), How many jobs were lost in the amalgamation of duties. My bet is none - or these will be the jobs he bragged about losing in the budget.
To conclude, hopefully the PC’s in Ontario will reinvent themselves one day and provide some decent opposition to the Liberals.
Thank you for letting me vent

The one-time $1000 tax credit is a con and a joke. It will cost me more than that in the first year alone. Ask Nove Scotians what the think about their “harmonious” tax system. I’d like to remind the premier of the days of Peterson and Nixon, where Nixon told an interviewer on TV that Ontarians were not yet ready for a tax revolt. Shortly after that we woke up one morning to a new NDP government followed an era of Conservative rule. Liberals are “crap”; always were and always will be. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I feel better but it won’t help.

Mar, 2009 - “We must do what it takes now to protect Canadians.” - “Global situation unprecedented.” (Crisis?) – “Funds need to be spent now!” – “Canada will recover…but only with repair to global banking system.” (FLAHERTY JIM – FINANCE MINISTER.)

Huge budget deficits are being planned to fund infrastructure spending…roads and bridges…shovels in the ground…two recent catch phrases.

(Why didn’t we get new roads when there were surplus budgets…are these bridges going to Alaska…are the “shovels in the ground” for graves?)

Nov, 2008 - Parliamentary “aides” (high priced secretaries) for federal ministers – PRIME MINISTER - HARPER STEPHEN announced; 27 parliamentary secretaries, some of which who are newbies, will receive retroactive salary increases of $15,600 per year on top of their annual salary of about $155,000. Their tasks include keeping track of files in committees, and standing in on days when a minister is absent from the Commons.

2007 - CANADA’S federal MP salaries rose again, this time by a mandatory 10 per cent increase to $155,000 (does this mean that they would have been fired if they didn’t take it?). All toll; it is assumed MPs are raking in approximately $195,000 per year.

2006 - Liberals and Conservatives of the Ontario legislature, voted to give themselves a merrier Christmas with a 25% pay raise. “I don’t think we’ve been put in government to choose what’s easy” – MCGUINTY DALTON (is this how it appears on his drivers’ licence? - Hmmm)

2004 – ALCOCK REGINALD…the treasury board of CANADA president, and leading cabinet supporter of private-public partnerships, and the person who proposed a mere two (2) percent per year increase to the public service alliance of CANADA…the government’s largest union.

Meanwhile, ALCOCK was averaged 8 percent increases per year, or 57 percent between 2000 to 2007…it was estimated Alcock would be hauling in $242,000 by 2007…Tommy Douglas called em “fat cats.” (8 times 7 is 56, and not 57, but its main stream math…sometimes it works in your favour)

2004 – One of the first Acts played out by PRIME MINISTER MARTIN PAUL; subtly boost the pay of his new cabinet ministers’ senior political staff, by more than $32,000 a year.

2001 – CANADA’S CEO - CHRETIEN JEAN gave all “federali politicians” a 20 per cent salary increase to match federal JUDGES. And, to himself, he took only a complimentary 42 percent increase in pay, retroactive to January 1, 2001. Out of the 263 people that voted on CHRETIEN’S pay increase, there were only 52 with credible consciences. BOUDRIA DON, the then government house leader, was the instrumentalist in “fast tracking” the bill. It’s stated that BOUDRIA will amass $2,152,672.00 over the course of his retirement from public service.

2001 - MPs were given non-taxable expense allowances of at least $22,950 (depending on the riding…it could be more). MPs also got $12,000 for housing allowance accommodations in Ottawa. Other members of parliament would receive the following extra pays: PRIME MINISTER $75,582 - Cabinet Minister $50,286 - Secretary of State $37,715 - Leader of the Opposition $53,040 - Other Party Leaders $31,820 - Parliamentary Secretary $11,322 - Speaker of the House $53,040

2000 - 2004 - Members of Parliament (MP) received pay increases totaling 28.8% Cabinet Ministers received pay increases of 30.8%. Prime Minister received a staggering 52.8%. These numbers do not include the increases which were planned for 2004.

The lame argument used to justify some of the party gift aways were; “we need to raise the salaries of judicial officials in order to be able to attract competent officials.”

(Does this then account for the other CANADIAN public service (government) employees being incompetent….Remember, they only got two percent?)

This bureaucratic argument, or concept for justification, might lead most people to feel that the majority work force (blue collar?) in Canada, are simply incompetent too.

1996 - CHRETIEN JEAN and COPPS SHEILA made this promise on their campaign trail: Scrap, Kill, and Abolish the GST - Goods and Services Tax. (Or – Just harmonize it in Ontario 13 years later?)

The word “politician” is of Greek origin, and comes with the following philosophical concept; one who is involved in influencing public decision making, through influence. People who hold decision-making positions in government, that influence the way a society is governed (controlled) or, made to think.

20/20 - Bailouts and Bull**** Pt. 1 of 6 – Part one you’ll find, is very much relative to Canada too…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tda0-cDyD0U&feature=PlayList&p=BC7545444EC69427&index=0&playnext=1

I think your assessment of the Ontario budget is very kind and very incomplete. With respect to what you think is ‘good’ I would say that
1. … the 5% cut to the civil service is a mirage. The fine print says that most of these will be transferred to the Feds, and the rest lost throough attritoin over the next few years. There are no cut-backs or lay-offs. There is no reduction in civil excessive service salaries and benefits, there is no cut-back on pension benefits.
2 … MPP salaries frozen? That’s good? MP salaries and benefits (especially the gold plated pension benefits) need to be cut way back.
3. … How can you say being bribed with our own money is ‘good’. We are being taken for fools. The Liberals should simply have cancelled that extra health survices tax.
On the ‘ugly’ why don’t you …
1. … show the growing debt, the increasing services on that debt, and the burden to our children and grand-children?
2. … show the inflationary pressure and potential for major increases in taxes in the future being placed on our economy through such high deficits?
3 … show the continued growth of government and the civil service, needed to implement all those billions of incentives?

Who says that HARMONIZATION is goog for business ????As a former businessman who collected and remitted both PST & GST I believe that the harmonizatin will creat a new set of implementation costs for business at a time when they can least afford it and that business will loose the 5% RST commmission which they were able to claim for remitting “on time”. Now add these factors to the WIDE VARIETY of items which will now be subject to the new tax and please explain to me WHY and HOW this HARMONIZED TAX will be GOOD FOR BUSINESS ??????

why we elect the liberals to squander our hard earned tax dollars only to be tax abused again is beyond me- the reason Ontario is in this mess is that we send more than we take in- here’s a thought- stop blowing the tax dollars and balance the budget instead of pandering to every special interest group

All I can say is I’m glad I don’t live in Ontario.
Bernard

This is a total crock!!
Nothing here for a retired senior like myself but more taxes!!!
I might be able live with this if the PST was dropped to 5%–now that would be what I call Harmonization–equal to the GST.

Also. I don’t believe for one minute that savings to businesses will trickle down to consumers.
How many more bureaucrats do we have to hire to oversee this turkey??
I wish I lived in another province.

Typical Liberal thinking. First, the federal Liberals con the federal government into spending far beyond their means, which pretty well guarantees a slow (possibly even no) recovery, before the next round of economic stupidity will take us on (happens every 15 to 20 years, no matter who the government is, and it is usually caused by some government stupidity, or another - in the present case, it was because the US government didn’t do something about unsustainable mortgage lending). Now, the Ontario Liberals are putting the cap on it. I predict that Canadian governments will be basket cases, for many years, even if the people smarten up, and turf the Liberals, immediately (the NDP would, obviously, be even worse, and I am not so sure that the Conservatives would be much better). Unfortunately, that will also take the western provinces, where most of the new wealth is being generated (when governments get out of the way), with them.

Nobody has done a study, to see how much sales taxes actually cost (doesn’t matter if i is PST, GST, or HST). My bet is, that by the time you add up all of the expenses to collect such a tax (including business compliance expenses), that it costs more than what is collected, with business picking up more than their fair share of the cost, and the governments hiding a good part of it in other budgets.

Excessive spending, while it sounds good, in the short term, will hobble Canada with excessive debt, which will have to be paid off by future generations. This will severely slow any recovery, simply because people will have to save to pay their taxes, rather than spending on goods, and services. The government will, of course, spend on those things, but it always seems that they just can’t get it right, and, it rarely does the taxpayer a lot of good. It is also obvious, that the bail out of inefficient industries, will simply prolong the agony. If they went down today, somebody would fill the gap, probably with a more efficient operation, that would not cost the taxpayer a LOT of money (and probably more, eventually).

My favorite saying: “If politicians are so smart, why is it that they keep on proving, that they are not?” I suppose, that the same could be said of the Canadian voter.

* If alternative energy resources were available, I wouldn’t mind gas or electricity getting more expensive. If the price raises, and there’s no option, I guess it depends on how much there is to squeeze out of me.

* Do increase tobacco taxes. I’m surprised there’s still people who keep paying.

*
Newspapers, who really cares? Do something about the Internet information resources. We do not need papers anymore.
*
Golf fees. there are other sports. Golf has always seemed to be on the pricey side, so that’s for those who have more money anyway. Go ahead and raise the fees.
*
Internet fees, OMG, I AM TOTALLY AGAINST HIGHER INTERNET FEES!!!
*
Membership fees — What kind of memberships for what kinds of organizations?
*
Real Estate commissions, good for the realtors.
*
Taxi fares, they are crazy already.
*
Professional Services (Lawyers, Accountants…) NO TO HIGHER FEES FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Everything You say and all the comments reflect our growing agreement that this government is not looking out for us ,and in its arogance could not care one iota..the usual Liberal philosophy. My question is when are we all going to say together we don’t want this anymore.,The key is together loud and clear and with backbone of course.

I would like, just once, for a politician to be quite candid and say something like, “we will be having a deficit each year over the next few years and the figures on the deficit projections are our best estimates”. Course the real problem is no one, and I mean, no one, in or out of government knows what the future will bring and the only real sure promise for the future, when large deficits are being projected, is that, the deficits each year will be larger and the total indebtedness of the province will be much larger and take way, way, longer to pay off. We have been through this type of situation before and I look forward to way higher taxes in the future and way more fees for services that at one time were paid for out of the taxes I pay each and every year. The people who are really going to suffer are those just starting out as they will be required to somehow or other pay off this massive debt. As for the United States, I say just wait the fat has not quite hit the fire yet. Who can even imagine a billion let alone a trillion, let alone 23 trillion dollars. Good luck world and all the people in it. We are all going to need every person banging away doing their level best to save and invest and being frugal for tough, very tough times, await us in the future.

McGuinty gives the Ontario Teachers the keys to the bank in the recent salary settlement. Then a few months later announces a large tax increase and a massive deficit! Go figure!

Dalton McGinty promised he would not increase taxes just before he got into power or shortly after. He is a liar and should be impeached, however I previously contacted the Ontario Ombudsman’s offic and I was advised their office could not touch and M.P. or the Premier. This is nothing but another tax grab that will be with us forever. The Government’s get bigger, their employees wages/salaries are now way above that of the average worker, and their pensions are indexed and their benefits travel with them when they retire. This is not happening in the open market–employees are being laid off and few companies are giving pensions and benefits after the employees retire.
Canadians in all provinces have to become pro active in fighting big government. Spend and tax. promise anything to get elected and then renege once you are in government.
We have a liar at the head on our Province—-how do we get rid of him??

Suggest Ontarions write to the opposition about their concerns and maybe the budget will be defeated and MdGinty and his crew will be thrown out of office.

Say or feel what you want about when the original federal GST was introduced. There was a lot of kicking, yelling and screaming back then, too.

There is a big difference about the federal GST and McGuinty Fibberal harmonization plan, in that two key words that were part of the introduction of the federal GST are missing. Those words spoke to the intent of the introduction of the GST and they are obviously not applicable for the new Ontario version: REVENUE NEUTRAL.

Since there is not even the least mention of revenue neutrality, at least in the first full year of application and there is no talk of a net savings in tax for the taxpayer, one can only conclude that the Ontario HST is nothing but a plan for * incremental * tax revenue.

I am also appalled at the Fibberal’s statement of wanting to promote saving amongst Ontarians, yet the HST will be applied to various fees for the management and administration of investments - they go and do the opposite of what they state their intention is. Why am I not surprised.

I can only hope, and it is probably a faint hope, that voters remember all the deceptions, deflections and outright LIES from the current provincial government when it is time for the next election.

Dalton McGuinty has no concern for the seniors or those who have worked hard to be successful. If you a teacher or in a union, you are his type of fellow.
He is Robin Hood dressed in a suit.

McGuinty has no opposition, which is clearly the fault of the Conservative Party. So, I guess it can be said that we are getting what we deserve.
We have constantly been faced with added taxation since the Liberals came to power. Nothing new for most of us and particularly many senoirs in this budget.

The Prime Minister just told you that anyone under $80,000.00 was eligible for a cash rebate. This tells me that socialist Ontario is a very expensive place to live and do business. The greatest deceit is to take and average and use it as a cost factor. Like $20,000.00 per year income averaged with $80,000.00 per year income. This shows an average of $50,000.00 which is deceiving because an average is the common division of the total. The majority of Ontarians are under $40,000.00 per year income brackets. The civil service and the socialists are robbing us blind. I suggest we downsize government and shift to the right.

the best argument that i can come up with regarding bailout is to watch :peter schiff was right 2oo6 , on you tube , then watch the rest of peters videos . after that watch all of the jim rogers videos .
these guys foresaw all this stuf in early 2006 and probably before . they are extremly on the ball and should be listed to .they point out what is wrong with bailouts and why
if you like their videos , pass then on .

What a load of crap this Budget produces. Pensioners and Senior Citizens have been left out of real benefits and are exposed to extra and unwanted taxes at a time when their circumstances , like the economy, are in dire straits. Nowhere do we learn what restraints on spending this McGuinty Liberal Government plans to undertake over the near and future term. Nowhere do we learn what Ontario received in return for agreeing to the HST (I call it the “Holy Shit Tax”). This Budget will produce a windfall in tax collection for the Feds … and guess where most of it will come from? We in Ontario have been shafted again.

All I can say is I wish I were younger and I would get out of Ontario and Toronto. I wonder how Miller and McGuinty could survive on a pensioner’s salary? I’ll be working to defeat both of them in the next election.

The majoity think this is great because they do not understand who will
have to pay and pay for this huge debt. Business and professionals that
can price their after-tax return or income won’t suffer. they will just raise
their prices and those not so fortunate will pay.Ontario’s ability to compete
will be crippled,and the gap between haves and have-nots will widen.

To think that someone once said :If we pay our politicians more we will get better politicians…geez i’d hate to see what we’d have if we paid them less !! It will cost me at least $1000 a year and this a_____ gives me back$300 of my own money ??? Why doesn’t somebody with the knowhow get an internet petition going ? These people take us for idiots . God ,am i mad at these b_______ . LIARS ,CHEATS , THIEVES don’t even come close to these people .They have the gall to tell us that it’s revenue neutral ,well lets save the administration costs and cancel the whole 8% !!
Ken ,Ottawa

Congrats Dalton , you have now turned Ontario into a havenot province and now you can take credit for a 56 billion dollar deficit to boot !

i cant believe that i am hearing the words “record deficit” in this province again. and we thought bob rae screwed up!!!! dalton mcguinty refuses to cut spending at every corner, refuses to stand tough with unions, and refuses to understand his budget will HURT business. i guess i can kiss my PST exemption for purchases for my business goodbye. way to go premier mctax.

A great way to try to hide and obfusticate a tax increase.
Remember, the GST replaced the Federal Sales Tax of 13%, hidden in the total cost of an item, before any Provincial Taxes were applied.
The GST was placed out in the open at 8% to replace the 13% FST.
It became a lot harder to increase the tax thereafter, since it was up front and visible all.
Remember also that the former 13% FST was increased by increments by Order In Council (OIC) and never really saw the light of a public debate.

Emperors’ Credo – Grabumus Spendumus Taxumus.
I will never forget what the president of the Ontario Truckers Union said during an AM radio interview, a few years ago, and I quote: “the taxes that we alone pay, is an amount which far surpasses the entire budgetary needs for all the high ways, and roads, in all of Ontario, and more.” So let them, the emperors, continue to feed us their bull crap about taxes; taxes at the gas pumps for road repairs, and taxes to register our cars, for road repairs…why are we made to register our cars with the province anyway? – Its so they can own them, your private property, that’s why. Ever notice on those big signs on the QEW highway in Ontario…they have the right to “roadside confiscation” of you vehicle (your property), which is in fact theirs; because we are forced to registered it as theirs…more and more, they become the owners of our property. Give to Cesar what is Cesar’s?

Committing the province to years of deficit financing is like giving this government and it’s successors a licence to squander tavpayers money on into the future. Doesn’t anyone in government understand the concept of fiscal responsibility?

Yes I agree we here in Ontario are being shafted and overtaxed by McGuinty, ( A two faced Liar) and in Canada as a whole. Just don’t turn to the rotten Liberals in Ottawa. (There is no such thing as a good Liberal,anywhere.) Does anyone see how this rotten mess can be overturned or do we all just have to give up? The voters can be blamed to some extent! Actually there was little or nothing to vote for last election., except Did you know there is a good provincial choice in Ontario? It is known as the Family Party of Ontario and they have excellent agendas, ideas etc. Look into them and you’ll be wonderfully surprised. They have their annual general meeting this month on Saturday April 25th. You can reach them on the internet. Submitted by: Stephen Gillespie, London, On.

Yes it can be overturned by getting rid of tax hogs like McGuinty who is in it for the corporate big wigs and himself despite what he says, and American(no offense)butt sniffing people like Harper.
Put in a real Canadian born and raised and currently living in Ontario,one who knows what its like to watch every penny they spend,one who has struggled in life just to make ends meet, one who is in it for the people and what benefits them not just the high class but the medium and lower classes as well, one who can appreciate living in Canada/Ontario and be proud of it and one who will lift and support the medium to low income class familys while putting the boots to the high corprate.
He/or She can start by looking in to their own offices (wanna talk about reform)give everyone in that office and the one elected a huge pay cut and start putting back the money he/or she would save into Canada and its people where it belongs.
Eliminate the out rages taxes i mean are they that desperate for tourism that there gonna make it impossible to live?