Stephen LeClair
Financial accountability officer Stephen LeClair has pretty much shredded the rosy picture presented yesterday by Premier Wynne and Finance MInister Sousa by declaring that Ontario’s debt will grow to $350 billion in the next four years. At $300 billion, Ontario already shoulders the largest non-sovereign debt in the world, bigger than California, a jurisdiction with maybe 40 million people compared to Ontario’s 14 million souls. The FAO says the net debt will keep growing largely because of the Liberal government’s $160-billion, 12-year plan to invest in infrastructure and public transit projects. And, considering that it requires nearly $12 billion a year just to carry the debt, his predictions are not surprising. The debt is no zero-interest car loan. The government’s happy report Monday featured the growth of the Ontario economy and prediction that the deficit will be zero on 2017. But LeClair say Ontario plans to go right back to deficit spending in 2018 and 2019. We’re going backwards in effect.