QUEEN’S PARK – MPP Jim McDonell presented Minister of Finance Charles Sousa with a summary of recommendations gathered during local Pre-Budget Consultations held in Cornwall and Morrisburg on February 9^th  and with all our municipal councils.

“The local community came together to voice their concerns and requests from the upcoming provincial Budget,”
MPP McDonell stated. “This valuable feedback could contribute significantly to building a 2016 Budget that would begin bringing Ontario out of the financial hole dug by the Liberals over the past decade. The Liberal government, however, appears to have written the Budget documentation even before the official round of Pre-Budget Consultations was completed by Finance Committee.”

The Finance Minister announced yesterday that the budget will be delivered on February 25^th.

 “The Budget, its estimates and the accompanying legislation must clear numerous bureaucratic and drafting steps before being even remotely ready for presentation to the Legislature,” MPP McDonell commented. “Such an early introduction means the drafting and refining process entered an advanced stage before Finance Committee or local communities could collect feedback and recommendations.  The whole process now appears just to have been a public relations exercise and as the schedule now proves, just a waste of everyone’s time and money.”

 MPP McDonell insists he will continue to advocate for local concerns to be heard in the Legislature.

 “I have brought our recommendations to our Finance critic and I will bring this feedback to the table, during both the debate on the Budget and in amendments to the Budget Bill,” he concluded.

 A copy of the Summary of Recommendations is attached and is available on MPP McDonell’s website athttp://ow.ly/Yr6ke