Simcoe Grey’s MPP says he almost had a stroke when he heard what the Ontario budget contained.
Progressive Conservative Jim Wilson says the Liberal plan to merge the GST and PST to form a harmonized sales tax, HST, will cost the average person more.
Wilson says local home builders’ associations have told him people buying a new home will be hit hard.
He says on a 400 thousand dollar home, it will likely cost homeowners about 18 thousand dollars more a year in heating costs and bills which will now be taxed.
Wilson says it will also cost more every time you gas up your vehicle at the pumps.
He says the McGuinty government has announced a thousand dollar rebate to help families cope, but it will pale in comparison to how much more people will be spending.
He says it will be about 3 thousand dollars more per family each year.
Wilson says another disappointment is that there isn’t anything in the budget for hospitals in our area.
He says he’s been lobbying for an replacement hospital in Alliston while Collingwood and Owen Sound’s hospitals are bursting at the seams yet there’s no help from the Liberal government.
Wilson is also upset there was no money set aside for schools in our region even though the government has announced 27.5 billion dollars to be spent over 2 years to improve roads, hospital and schools.
One thing Wilson does like about the budget is the 700 million dollars over two years to be spent on skills training.