Taxpayers group brings debt clock to Sudbury to protest against provincial spending

A Canadian advocacy group whose calls for lower taxes typically align with the platforms of conservative political parties is currently touring Ontario taking aim at Premier Doug Ford.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is touring the province with a provincial 'debt clock' mounted on the side of a van.

It stopped in Sudbury on Friday as part of a 17-city campaign aimed at getting the Ontario government to pay down the provincial debt.

"We're almost at $425 billion of provincial debt," said Jay Goldberg, the Ontario director for the taxpayers federation.

"We're the most indebted sub-national government in the world. And our share per person, as you can see, is almost $26,000."

Ford outspending Kathleen Wynne, federation says

The province is spending $14 billion this year just to service the debt, he added, and that money could be used to lower taxes or pay for health care.

Goldberg criticized Ford for promising when he first took office to get spending under control, then doing the opposite.

"Spending now is tens of billions of dollars higher than it was under the Kathleen Wynne government," he said.

"He alone has added $86 billion to the provincial debt. Kathleen Wynne, by comparison, was about $45 billion."

Asked how the government could pay down the debt while still improving health care and education for Ontarians, Goldberg said it could balance the budget simply by adhering to the budget and not overspending.

He said the government also needs to prioritize spending in key areas and reduce spending in others.

"Corporate welfare spending has been through the roof," Goldberg said.

"We're giving money to companies like Honda and Volkswagen and Loblaw — all kinds of very wealthy companies that don't need taxpayer help."

People are upset, he said, because they know that they're having to make sacrifices to live within their means – particularly now – while they see governments doing the opposite and racking up record-sized deficits. 

The province responds

A spokesperson for the province's minister of finance defended the government's spending record to CBC saying it is "making historic investments in roads, transit, housing, and healthcare, while continuing a clear path back to balance and with revenues up $52 billion since we took office."          

Colin Blachar pointed to steps the government has taken to keep costs down for families, including cutting the gas tax and eliminating license plate fees.

He also noted that Morningstar DBRS upgraded Ontario's credit rating in June.

A professor of economics at Lakehead University said the debt is concerning when one takes into account the combined federal, provincial and municipal debts, and Ontario is probably the most indebted province in Canada. 

Time for tax reform?

"You've got a federal government [with] about $1.1, $1.2 trillion in debt," Livio Di Matteo said. 

"As a share of GDP, it seems to be only 40 per cent or so, so that seems manageable compared to everybody else. But … the total debt burden in Canada is starting to approach – between, you know, federal provincial and municipal – 90 to 100 per cent of GDP, which, you know, is comparable to some other jurisdictions that are considered highly indebted internationally."

But Di Matteo believes part of the reason for Ontarians' discontent is the lack of value they see for their tax dollars, he said.

""There are perceptions of public services, whether they be in health or education, [that suggest they] are not working as well as they used to," he said. 

"And people are having more difficulty attaching, you know, the value of those services to the tax that is being paid."

The country hasn't engaged in major tax reform since the 1980s, prior to the advent of the digital economy, he said.

He said the country ought to consider another major review of how taxation is carried out.