Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli says Standard and Poor’s is confirming what the Tories keep saying which is the Liberals have a spending problem. Fedeli was reacting to Ontario’s latest credit downgrade.
Fedeli says when the Liberals took power in 2003 they collected $65-billion in revenue. Now revenue is $115-billion a year but we have a massive deficit and debt. He says had the Liberals been more careful with their spending, we wouldn’t be facing cash problems today.
“Had this government just kept their spending at a reasonable three, 3.1, percent, we’d have never had a deficit,” says Fedeli. “And in fact, we would have actually had surpluses paying back the debt.”
Fedeli says a downgrade is bad news for the province when it wants to borrow more money because it eventually means paying higher interest. But Fedeli says both the Premier and finance minister said the downgrade is nothing to worry about.
“They were so nonchalant about it, I was embarrassed for them,” explains Fedeli. “They sounded like fools, saying ‘a credit downgrade? Don’t worry about that, there’s nothing to see here, move on.'”
Fedeli says when Standard and Poor`s downgraded Ontario`s credit rating last week it said what the Tories have said for years which is the Liberals need to get their spending under control.