(Queen’s Park) – As Dalton McGuinty charges ahead with his newest tax grab, Ontarians continue to pay more, Opposition Leader Bob Runciman (Leeds-Grenville) said today.

“Once again, Dalton McGuinty is nickel and diming hardworking Ontarians with his latest tax grab - this time on meals at restaurants, coffee shops and even in hospital waiting rooms,” said Runciman. “It’s like déjà vu all over again in the form of a ‘Soup and Sandwich’ tax.”

In the Legislature today, Runciman questioned Dalton McGuinty about the impact of his new sales tax on the cost of meals under four dollars for Ontario families, seniors, students and businesses. The McGuinty Liberals attempted to impose a similar tax on meals back in 2004.

“It was a shameless tax attempt then and it’s the same thing again today,” said Runciman. “It’s clear that there is nothing Mr. McGuinty isn’t prepared to go after in order to feed his tax cravings.”

Approximately 1.5 million meals under four dollars are sold every day in Ontario.

Mr. Robert W. Runciman: I move the following opposition day motion:

Whereas the budget introduced on March 26, 2009, would give the McGuinty government the authority to spend an extraordinary and unprecedented amount of taxpayer money;

Whereas since 2005, the Auditor General has been highly critical of the McGuinty government's lack of accountability, controls and transparency with respect to transfers of taxpayer money, particularly at the end of the fiscal year;

That the Legislative Assembly call on the McGuinty government to amend Bill 162 to provide that the McGuinty government table reports in this House no later than five sitting days before the end of each of the sitting periods of the 2009-10 fiscal year:

(a) to provide ongoing economic and fiscal updates;

(b) to detail the actual implementation of the budget;

(c) to itemize the actual effects of the budget with respect to the minimizing of existing job losses, the creation of new private sector jobs, the provision of economic stimulus in a manner fair to all regions of Ontario, the assurance that the government's deficit is not a burden to future generations; and

(d) to disclose the name of the project to which the infrastructure funding is being provided, the nature of the project and what it is intended to achieve in fighting the recession, its location, including the provincial electoral district in which it is located, the amount of provincial funding involved, any other funding partners and the amounts of their contributions, the department and program under which the provincial funding is being provided; and

That each such report shall automatically and immediately be posted on an accessible and interactive government website, and be referred to the Standing Committee on Estimates and to the Auditor General.

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The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bruce Crozier): Mr. Runciman has moved opposition day motion number two. Mr. Runciman.

Mr. Robert W. Runciman: There's an old saying, " Once bitten, twice shy." Well, the taxpayers, businesses and families of Ontario have been bitten often and very deeply by the McGuinty government. They have had their trust betrayed, seen promises broken and been saddled with punishing taxation and enormous debts that will plague their descendants for generations to come.

Ontarians look to their government for strong leadership, fresh ideas and the empathy they need in difficult times. Instead, they've been offered only platitudes and more of the failed policies that have worsened the recession instead of easing it.

We all recall, just two years ago, the auditor's scathing criticism of the McGuinty government over slushgate, where they shovelled millions of tax dollars out the door to their friends. The Auditor General described the McGuinty government's spending controls as among the worst he'd ever seen.

It's no wonder that all Ontarians are cynical. It's only natural that they do not trust this government to do what is needed. Ontarians need some reassurance that things will be different this time; that Mr. McGuinty and his crew will not be able to get away with more rhetoric and no responsibility for their failings. That's the intent of our motion today: to ensure that this government is held to account.

It is a sad situation-there's no doubt about it-when responsibility has to be imposed on a government instead of being assumed. However, we in the official opposition have to be realistic, given the Liberals' long and sordid history of mismanaging Ontario's economy.

Members across the floor are not anxious to review the evidence of their economic policy failures, I' m sure, but I'm going to proceed anyway. It's a long and unhappy list, and I'm concerned that my colleagues opposite may find themselves sunk in depression and consumed by guilt when they contemplate their own sorry record. However, I want to show the necessity for this motion, so I will proceed.

We can go all the way back to the start of the McGuinty era, when the Premier broke his word to Ontarians regarding taxes. Instead of no new taxes, as he promised, he brought in the largest tax hike in Ontario history. Since then, he has completed the triple crown for tax-and-spend politicians: the largest tax hike, the largest deficit and the largest debt ever seen in this province. Those accomplishments alone are enough to put this government in the hall of shame and enough to destroy public faith in their economic management. But that is not all. The litany of failure continues.

Dalton McGuinty has taken Ontario from first to last in economic growth. Dalton McGuinty has made Ontario into a have-not province for the first time in its proud history. Dalton McGuinty frittered away $26 billion in extra revenue instead of preparing for the inevitable rainy day. And Dalton McGuinty has overseen an abysmal record of job creation: 129,000 full-time jobs lost since the last election and a quarter million manufacturing jobs killed since he first took office.

However, when it comes to hiring people on the public payroll, they're up 19%. They've hired as many public servants as all the other provinces in Canada put together. When it comes to creating jobs in the private sector, jobs that create wealth instead of just moving tax dollars around, Ontario is up only 1% in six years-just 1%-less than the rate of population growth.

Despite all the public hiring and the huge increase in six-figure salaries they're offering for public servants, overall employment in Ontario continues to fall. Our economy has lost more than 61,000 jobs since the last election.

My friends opposite should be hanging their heads in shame on the topic of job creation, the most important measure of economic strength. Their policies have been disastrous on that score, but they've refused to change course. They continue to tell Ontarians that they can get us out of the hole they created if only they keep digging.

McGuinty's latest budget is the latest example. It fails to address the dire needs of Ontarians, and instead threatens to continue on the path of broken promises and failed ideas. I have a very limited time, so I cannot list all the ways this budget fails, but some of us have families to go home to, but this budget not only fails parents who are looking to put their children in full-day kindergarten, it not only fails patients looking for improved health care services, it also fails to provide Ontario families with the help they need in the face of the current economic crisis. This budget does not provide Ontarians with the plan they need and deserve, the fresh approach and practical ideas to get our economy going again. Instead, we have more of the same: more spending without accountability and more taxation without mercy.

In their rush to make up for the wasted years, years when they were flush with money but flushed that money away, in their panic to be seen to be acting, this government risks wasting yet more public money. The good intentions of infrastructure spending are being put at risk-limited time for due diligence, insufficient planning that could see projects run short of money and a lack of accountability for real benefits for taxpayers. While they are proud to be seen throwing taxpayer money at infrastructure, they're ashamed to be seen spending those same tax dollars in other ways: on inflated salaries, opulent office renovations, entertainment and travel expenses, and other slaps in the face to taxpayers.

It's frightening to note that under his plan, Mr. McGuinty will have tripled the deficit and doubled Ontario's debt. We all know that Bob Rae has become a Liberal, but we didn't realize the Ontario Liberals wanted to become Bob Rae. He must be very proud.

But even to achieve those horrendous numbers, the McGuinty plan calls for program spending to be held at 3.6% increases in the next three years and 2.6% increases for four years after that. The fact of the matter is that this government has increased spending by 8% every year, and now you want people to believe that you will somehow overcome your spending addiction and cut your habit by half, then by two thirds. Again, you can't blame Ontarians for being cynical. As the Premier himself has said, and I'm quoting Dr. Phil, "The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour." Taxpayers would be well advised to take this government's plan with a large block of salt.

Finally, this budget claims to confront the economic crisis, but the only thing it confronts is taxpayers' wallets. Dalton McGuinty's response to the global recession, to the cries for help from struggling Ontario families is to raise taxes yet again: tax hikes on everything from heating your home to driving your car, from using the Internet to going to the gym, from shoes for adults to audiobooks for the blind. This is the boot to the face instead of the helping hand that Ontarians needed.

Mr. Robert W. Runciman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m rising today to respond to the budget motion on behalf of the Progressive Conservative caucus. I’d like to begin my remarks with a simple question: What’s the definition of a recession? Economists have their definition, but for people across this province struggling to keep their heads above the current financial challenges, I would suggest a recession is when your neighbour loses their job. A lot of our neighbours have been losing their jobs since the Liberals took office. In fact, nearly 300,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in this province since mid-2004. Another 135,000 manufacturing jobs are expected to be lost this year. We’ve seen over 100,000 disappear in just the past two months. That’s what happens when you raise taxes: Tax hikes kill jobs.

The last time we sat in opposition across from a government to raise taxes, Ontario had a recession. Our neighbours all across Ontario lost their jobs. To my neighbours across this chamber, specifically Liberal backbenchers, I ask, what have you done for your neighbours? What have you done to save your neighbours’ jobs? Your constituents’ jobs? Did you stand up to your leader when he came to you with the idea of raising taxes in the middle of a recession? Did he seek your advice? And if you stood up in caucus on behalf of your neighbours, your constituents, how come you didn’t stand a little taller, speak out a little louder and stop this punishing tax hike before it hit your neighbours?

As a Progressive Conservative I don’t find too many opportunities to quote the Toronto Star, but this is one of those rare occasions. In Jim Coyle’s column today, he references what he describes as Dalton McGuinty’s “increasingly arrogant and autocratic attitude.” That’s a view I suspect is shared not just by opposition members, but government backbenchers as well. If only they could muster some steel in their spines, they might start standing up and speaking out against a Premier, to use Jim Coyle’s words, who was “less than forthcoming” during Liberal caucus discussions on the harmonized sales tax. In my less polite words, Mr. McGuinty blindsided his own caucus, didn’t let them know that he had already decided to bring in a massive tax-grab budget that will do serious harm to many of their constituents.

Of course we’re not hearing any uproar from the Liberal backbenchers. They are here for one reason and one reason only: To do Mr. McGuinty’s bidding; stand up when they’re told to stand up, sit down when they’re told to sit down, speak when they’re told to speak. That’s the sad state of parliamentary democracy in today’s legislature. The challenges this budget will create for Ontarians already coping with the worst recession in 70 years should be the number one priority for MPPs. Look after and represent the people in your riding, the people who elected you. Regrettably, that number one priority for Liberal MPPs isn’t even on their list. They’re here to support their leader: No other priority permitted. Over the course of this debate they will dutifully, obediently stand in their place and read words written by people in the Premier’s office and hope that no one in their riding will notice their abject failure to represent them.

I said we’ve seen this kind of thing before, tax hikes, recession, our neighbours losing their jobs. But perhaps I was a little wrong on that. We haven’t seen anything quite like this before. Not just a tax hike in the middle of a recession, but on top of it, the largest deficit in Ontario’s history. Worse still, have-not status for the first time in our lives, meaning that Ontario will start accepting a handout from the federal government and will step into the cycle of potential welfare dependency on the federal government starting April 1, this week: This Wednesday we become a have-not province.

This is not an ordinary budget. It’s not an ordinary Liberal budget. It’s even worse than the worst budget the NDP foisted on this province. Again, back, surprisingly, to the Toronto Star: a “$14.1 billion dollar deficit is largest in the history of Ontario.”

The “big-spending budget ... will make everyone’s wallet ... lighter ....

“eclipsed the long-held red ink record held by former NDP treasurer Floyd Laughren...”

That’s the Toronto Star.

Toronto Star reporter Richard Brennan even asked the finance minister on Thursday, “Minister, Mind if I call you Floyd?”

The Premier is raising taxes on homes in the middle of a housing crisis. Here’s what Pauline Aunger, the president of the Ontario Real Estate Association, had to say about that on Thursday in a Canadian Press story: “These additional taxes could price some homebuyers, especially first-time homebuyers, right out of the market.” Ms. Aunger’s association represents the province’s 47,000 real estate brokers. She knows what she’s talking about.

The Premier is also raising taxes on gas while fuel prices are in flux. He’s punishing lower- and middle-class Ontarians the most by slapping taxes on things like restaurant food, Internet service, home heating oil, entertainment, even on a cup of Tim Hortons coffee. It’s nothing short of a war on Ontario families, a war on Ontario workers and a war on the middle class at exactly the wrong time. The National Post described it as “a massive tax grab” that “could easily provoke a consumer revolt ... the last thing Ontario needs.”

Even those who agree with harmonizing the sales tax and the GST say that this is precisely the wrong time to do it. Again, I’ll quote the National Post: “While introducing a new form of sales tax may be justified on paper, doing so at the depth of a recession, when working families are already nervous, could easily spook consumers, causing them to postpone purchases—particularly big-ticket items such as cars—thereby worsening the current economic downturn in Ontario.” Do we really want more Ontarians postponing big-ticket purchases like cars and homes? Aren’t Ontario’s auto industry and housing industry suffering enough? Do we really want Ontarians postponing even small-ticket purchases or making fewer of them, maybe cutting back a cup of Tim Hortons coffee here and there? Is that what we really want? Is this the right time for a tax on Tim Hortons? The Tim Hortons Tax; well, I say good luck in selling that to the people of Ontario.

Is this the right time for a tax hike on the average family? A quote from just one, Mia Lalonde, on CBC’s The National on March 26. “Times are really tough for the average family, the average consumer, and it just seems like it’s a hit in the pocket.” Well, Mia is right. It’s a hit, it’s a big hit in the pocket for the average family and the average consumer. Mr. McGuinty’s insatiable appetite for spending has already emptied out our back pockets. Now he’s hitting our front pockets and apparently he won’t stop until there’s nothing left but lint. The Premier can dress it up however he wants, but the truth is loud and clear to the average Ontario taxpayer.

I want to say a few words to our Ontario neighbours who still have jobs. Perhaps you commute to work, like so many Ontarians do. This Premier wants to raise their taxes with a whopping 8% tax hike on gas, making it more expensive for people to drive to work, drive to the grocery store or pick up the kids at school. Some of us, as I mentioned in question period today, are old enough to remember when gas was measured in gallons, and some of us remember another politician who raised taxes on gas. Back then it was Joe Clark raising taxes 18 cents a gallon. The Premier’s new tax hike on gas isn’t 18 cents a gallon, it’s not 20 cents a gallon, it’s not even 25 cents a gallon. The Premier’s new tax hike on gas, on commuters, on mothers, on fathers picking up kids at school is a whopping 32 cents a gallon based on current prices. That gives people an idea of the magnitude of this tax grab. This is based on prices we know, in terms of gasoline, will rise in the future. It’s also a tax on a tax.

Mr. Clark’s government was defeated on the basis of that tax hike, a fate that awaits Mr. McGuinty and his supporters. If you think you’ll be able to escape this mess by taking another mode of transportation, well, Dalton’s got that taxed, too. You’ll be hit with a tax on your plane ticket, on your train ticket, on your bus ticket, on your taxi fare. The single sales tax will also mean a tax on electricity, a tax on cell phones, a tax on cable, a tax on a ski lift ticket.

Every time you need an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, a furnace repaired, air conditioning service, your driveway shovelled, and your lawn cut – Ontarians have to be prepared to add the 8% tax—a tax they didn’t pay before Mr. Dalton McGuinty’s latest tax torment was announced.

Even going out on the town, after working hard all week, won’t be as much fun. You’re going to be taxed on that restaurant food. Stephanie Jones from the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association, after the budget, described the initiative impacting their industry as “death by a thousand cuts.”

Going out of town won’t have as much appeal any more, either. Hotel rooms will be taxed, too. Dalton’s hit list of items to be taxed is endless.

“Not even audio books for the blind escaped the taxman yesterday,” according to the March 27th edition of the Kingston Whig Standard.

Even legal services will be taxed. This is Jamie Trimble of the Ontario Bar Association quoting to the Toronto Star on legal services, “It means ordinary folk, who, for instance, are being denied access to their children, are going to have that much more difficulty.” That’s from the Ontario Bar Association.

So I say once again to the back bench Liberals across the way, start standing up for your constituents. Stand up for what’s right. Stand up for your neighbours who are losing their jobs. For those watching, viewing these proceedings who live in Liberal ridings, I would encourage you to contact your local MPP to ask why he or she has remained silent on this tax grab budget. Viewers can call our 1-800 number, that’s 1-800-263-2335, to let us know how this new tax is impacting you, your families, your businesses. We also intend to launch a related website and we’ll have details of that website announced very shortly.

The Premier is trying to coddle our neighbours, buy them off with their own money, returning $1,000 dollars in three instalments, after he’s already removed it from their pockets. Perhaps the Premier said to caucus, here’s an idea, let’s send out three cheques to people to make them forget about the tax hike—the tax hike that will be with them forever.

Well, that’s cynical enough, but even more cynical is the Premier’s scheme to send one of those cheques out just before Christmas. It’s an insult to the intelligence of Ontarians.

It’s really a triple bribe, the scheme to send three “McGuilty” cheques to taxpayers. The first check is hush money to keep people quiet about being gouged. The second cheque is the Christmas cheque just to remind people that yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, even after the McGuinty Liberals have taxed them to their teeth.

The last check, which coincidentally, will arrive in people’s mailboxes in June 2011, an attempt in our view—I think most Ontarians will share this view—to buy their votes for the October 2011 election.

We in the Progressive Conservative Party are on to you, Mr. Premier. So are Ontarians. You’re like the magician who’s tried to fool people using the old slight of hand method, hoping people won’t notice how you accomplish the trick.

You are soon going to learn that you have a big political problem with this attempt at a magic trick. People will only see these cheques once, twice, maybe three times, spaced out over two years, and then presto, they’ll be gone. Meanwhile, the Premier’s new tax hikes will be in our face every single day, at the gas station, at the restaurant, at the train station, at the airport, at the bus station, in taxi cabs, on our cell phone bills, on our cable bills, on our Internet bills, at hotels, at the funeral parlour, in apartment buildings, in our homes, and at the counter at Tim Hortons—a constant, never-ending reminder of the worst budget in Ontario’s history. I say the people of Ontario will not forget.

This is the wrong budget at the wrong time, and it gets worse. This budget plans to put Ontario in the hole and keep us there for at least another seven years—seven years of deficits by design. Think about that: A plan to put Ontario in the hole for seven years. That’s their plan. It’s a perfectly crafted plan for failure.

One of the central assumptions of their budget is that the recession will end by mid-year this year. That’s 90 days from now. Is that optimistic, foolish fantasy or something else I don’t know? Let’s get together in 90 days and see if the recession is over. I think we all hope it is, and if the recession is over in 90 days, as this budget contends, we will still be left with seven years of deficits. A recession that’s less than one year long from beginning to end leading to seven years of deficits—it’s a seven-to-one ratio. It’s like dog years. For every one year of recession, the Premier turns it into seven years of deficits. Can you imagine, Speaker, spending $1 and going $7 into debt? Well, you don’t have to imagine it any more. This budget makes it a reality for you, your children and your grandchildren.

What if the recession doesn’t end 90 days from now? What if it lasts longer? What if the recession lasts until July? Does that mean Ontario will run a deficit for eight years? What if the recession lasts until the end of this year? Deficits for nine, 10, 11 years? Dog days, indeed, from Mr. McGuinty.

Let me remind you once again—this is by design, their design. It’s their budget, and if it all goes according to their plan, Ontario families will see tax hikes on homes while the housing market is already in enough trouble, tax hikes on gas while our auto industry is in crisis, tax hikes on transportation while people need to get to work more than ever to pay those taxes, and even taxes on legal services while people are already having a hard time accessing the justice system in this province – and seven years of planned deficits which will weigh heavily, heavily indeed, on the next generation.

A lot’s been made about the Premier finally—albeit lately, but finally admitting that he needs to lower, not raise taxes on business if he wants to have business continue to operate in this province. Well, I have to say—and this was noted on Global TV this week as well—that none of the cuts will take effect for more than a year—too late for many of the companies struggling to make it through this recessionary period.

Still, the Premier did finally admit that he was wrong on business taxes and that we were right on business taxes. I’m glad we were able to help him see the light. However, just as the Premier giveth to small business with one hand, he taketh away with the other—just like the old magic trick I mentioned earlier.

I received an e-mail last night from a small business owner. He wrote to me about the Liberals’ triple whammy on small business. He informed me that the tax on heat and hydro alone, because of this new single sales tax, will hike up his cost by an additional $10,000. That’s the impact on his bottom line.

Ontarians are starting to see who’s really behind the curtain in Dalton McGuinty’s office. It’s a man who’s sadly lost touch with the people and with economic reality since becoming Premier. He’s a man who is living in a comfortable bubble. He’s shielded from society in his taxpayer-subsidized, million-dollar-plus home in a very tony Toronto neighbourhood. He is picked up by a taxpayer-paid-for, chauffeur-driven limousine in the morning. He comes into an office where he has a record number of staffers from the Premier’s office responding to him, paid for by the taxpayers of this province.

A couple of years ago—this was two or three years ago—we heard stories about the Premier paying $50, $60, $70 for a haircut. You know, in stark contrast, I get my ears lowered in my riding at Jay’s Barber Shop on King Street East in Brockville. Jay Lindy, a great guy: For $7.50, I get a haircut, a briefing on the political scene, plus three or four jokes I can’t repeat here.

The Premier, stuck in his bubble, regrettably doesn’t understand and appreciate the impact of his latest tax burden on hard-working families, small businessmen, the unemployed, seniors, and others on fixed income. How many communities has he visited over the past few years that have lost major manufacturing operations, with hundreds and thousands of people thrown out of work? How many of those communities has he visited? None, none that we’re aware of.

He’s a man who just can’t stop himself from making promises as well about no more taxes, then breaking them over and over again. He’s publicly broken the promise to not raise taxes so many times that we have classified him—and many others have as well—as a serial promise breaker, a repeat offender. He’s proven that he can’t be rehabilitated. He can’t be rehabilitated because he just can’t stop himself from raising taxes.

The Premier keeps re-offending—

My colleague just mentioned something—because he believes he can get away with it. In his view, he can get away with it. Even the Windsor Star—and this is in Finance Minister Duncan’s riding, his home paper. Here is what was mentioned in the Star’s editorial on March 27: “To some degree, the Liberals’ attitude toward taxpayers stems from the fact they promised not to raise taxes in the 2003 election campaign, and then hit Ontarians with a health tax of up to $900 a person. It didn’t hurt them at the polls at all in 2007. They made the same ‘no new taxes’ vow in that election and, as of Thursday, they’ve broken their promise again.” The Windsor Star says, “This time, we think Ontarians are paying attention.”

We agree. The Premier’s bad behaviour of promise-breaking on tax increases was rewarded with re-election in 2007. But it’s a grave insult to the intelligence of voters across this great province for the Premier to think he can get away with it again in 2011. As the saying goes, once burned, twice shy.

I guess we could also describe the Premier as a serial spender. It’s that behaviour, spending like there’s no tomorrow, that helped get us into this mess in the first place. Over the past six years, the McGuinty Liberals forked out $27 billion and increased government spending by 40%. They have spent over budget every year since they were elected when they should have been storing their acorns in anticipation of tough times ahead.

The signs were all there. Our party saw them; many, many economists saw them. Almost four years ago, we introduced a motion for debate in the legislature calling for the McGuinty Liberals to immediately bring forward a detailed government initiative to deal with economic crises affecting communities like Cornwall, Oshawa, Collingwood, Thunder Bay, Windsor, St. Catharines, and a host of smaller communities around Ontario. The Liberal members supported our idea, but then did nothing, perhaps hoping we’d forget to out them for their inaction.

Our party tried again in May 2007 with another jobs-related motion. It was also debated in this place, and this time, when we asked the McGuinty Liberals to bring forward a comprehensive jobs plan, they flatly voted us down.

But we didn’t give up. We tried again to spur the government into economic action. In the fall of 2008, we asked for a select committee on the Ontario economy to consider and report on options to address the challenges faced by Ontario families and businesses in the province’s weakened economy. Once again, the Liberals gave the ‘thumbs down’ to this motion as well.

Perhaps if the McGuinty Liberals had listened and acted when we first raised the warning flags four years ago, they wouldn’t now be faced with a dismal record of nearly 300,000 manufacturing job losses, with 135,000 more predicted to come before the end of this year.

This is an aside: You can compare that to the record when our party left office. In 2003, we had created one million net new jobs.

Leading up to the budget, in an effort to work co-operatively during tough economic times, our party announced two specific ideas that could help both cash-strapped consumers and the struggling auto sector right now. We asked the McGuinty Liberals to implement a three-month provincial sales tax holiday on new car and truck sales immediately. It wasn’t in the budget; instead, the Liberals decided to tax gas.

We asked the McGuinty Liberals to include a ‘retire your ride’ program in partnership with a similar federal program. This program would give Ontario drivers $2,000 toward the purchase or lease of a new car, once they turn in a vehicle that is at least 10 years old. It also would have assisted in terms of improving the environment. This wasn’t in the budget, either; instead, the Liberals decided to tax train, plane, bus and taxi fares.

In closing, I’d like to remind everyone that it took our party five and a half years to get the Premier to change his tune on lowering taxes for businesses. We should have been more specific, because it’s common sense that when you lower taxes on businesses, you don’t raise taxes on the things those businesses sell—the things that hard-working Ontario families need. It’s common sense that you don’t shift the tax burden from businesses to consumers when economic times are at their worst and then expect the businesses to pass on their tax savings to consumers when they’re barely keeping their heads above water themselves.

Mr. Premier, let me be more specific: Stop raising taxes, period. Stop it. In fact, while I’m at it, cut taxes on businesses and families.

I think we’ve got it covered, and I think we had it covered the last time we were in office. We cut taxes on businesses and families, we cut the deficit, and we brought jobs and prosperity to Ontario. It works every time it’s tried.

I’d like to conclude with a twist on an old Ronald Reagan bromide that applies to Ontario’s current situation. As I said earlier, the definition of a recession is when your neighbour loses their job; the definition of a depression is when you lose your job. The definition of recovery for this great province of ours? Well, the definition of recovery is when this Premier loses his job. The recovery for Ontario begins October 6, 2011.

At this juncture, I would like to move an amendment to the budget motion. I move that the motion moved by the Minister of Finance on March 26, 2009, “that this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the government,” be amended by deleting the words after “that this House” and adding the following:

“acknowledges that Budget 2009 brings in the biggest deficit in Ontario’s history of $14 billion, when the McGuinty Liberals had a $6 billion surplus just last year; and

“acknowledges that under this government’s watch, nearly 300,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared, with another 135,000 expected to be lost this year; and

“acknowledges that the Premier broke his promise not to raise taxes after the 2003 election by imposing a health tax of up to $900; and

“acknowledges that the Premier again broke his promise with this budget by announcing his scheme to create a single sales tax—the biggest tax grab in Ontario’s history that will force people to pay taxes on everything from a cup of coffee to funeral services; and

“acknowledges that serial promise-breaking on tax increases, coupled with serial spending and mismanagement of public money, will not be tolerated by the people of Ontario.”