Here are the highlights of the Ontario budget introduced by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan:
– total of 110.2 billion dollars in deficit spending over 8 years until the books are balanced in 2017-18.
– that includes this year’s record 21.3 billion dollar deficit.
– immediate pay freeze for most public sector employees who are not in a union or professional association for two years.
– M-P-P pay freeze started last year is extended for another two years.
– no funding for salary increases for civil servants and others in the public sector, including nurses and teachers, for two years once their current collective agreements expire. Municipal employees, including police, are exempt.
– 310 million dollar increase in post secondary education funding to pay for 20-thousand new college and university spaces this fall, and increase foreign students by 50 per cent.
– a 150 million dollar a year program to reduce electricity prices by 25 per cent for large industrial users in the north.
– a new northern Ontario energy credit of up to 200-dollars for low-to middle-income families; singles would get up to 130-dollars.
– 63.5 million dollars to replace federal child care funding that is ending.
– total spending in 2010-11 hits 126 billion dollars — an increase of 8.2 billion over the fiscal year that ends March 31st.
– economic growth projected at 2.7 per cent this year, 3.2 per cent in 2011, 3.2 per cent in 2012 and three per cent in 2013.
– unemployment rate to rise to 9.1 per cent this year from nine per cent last year; projected to fall to 8.5 per cent in 2011, 7.6 per cent in 2012 and 6.8 per cent in 2013.