As the dust settles after the Progressive Conservatives’ first budget, the extent of the spending cuts is sinking in.From urban university think tanks and rural tree-planting programs being chopped to the final chapter for library book-sharing programs, the real impact of Finance Minister Vic Fedeli’s spending plan is beginning to be felt two weeks after it was unveiled.But the haphazard nature of the cuts — compounded by Premier Doug Ford’s public statements about the fiscal blueprint — makes it difficult to determine the government’s budget strategy.Ford boasted this week that “our budget was pretty Liberal, to say the least” because it spends a record $163.4 billion, some $4.9 billion more than his Grit predecessor, Kathleen Wynne, budgeted last year.“We caught everyone off-guard. We got everyone flat-footed. Was it a super-staunch Conservative budget? No it wasn’t,” he told Global News’ Alan Carter on AM 640 on Monday.The Progressive Conservatives, who plan to run deficits past the 2022 election, have increased overall spending as a result of accounting changes and a decision to transfer billions in consumer electricity subsidies from the ratepayers’ base to taxpayers.At the same time, the Tories are forgoing about $1.9 billion in annual revenue with the cancellation of the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade environmental alliance with Quebec and California.While those revenues were earmarked for green programs, such as electric vehicle subsidies and home retrofits, the cut has contributed to a cash crunch for the government, which is reducing the budgets of 13 ministries.The premier emphasized his government had to find “efficiencies in a reasonable and responsible way” in order to “to put additional money into health and education.”Yet the most publicized spending reductions so far have been in those areas.Queen’s Park is slashing its ...
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