July 18th, 2016

Statement by Ontario NDP Finance Critic Catherine Fife responding to Q1 2016 Economic Accounts

Catherine Fife, Ontario NDP Finance Critic, issued the following statement:

“The Liberal economic plan is out of touch with the realities that too many Ontarians face.

It does nothing to address the silent crisis in our province’s health care system. Their promise is to balance the books by overcrowding our hospitals, firing thousands of healthcare workers, and creating a $3 billion backlog in critical repairs to hospitals. 

The government’s claims of prosperity will do little to comfort the hardworking families who continue to wait to find good, stable jobs across Ontario.

And the story behind their numbers shows that under this Liberal Premier, the number of people working in temporary jobs, without benefits or even sick days, has increased more than twelve times faster than people with stable, permanent jobs. Families are being forced to do more with less and are falling further behind. Precarious employment disproportionately affects women and members of marginalized communities.

Rather than helping to fix these problems by raising the minimum wage to $15/hr and investing in healthcare, education, and job training, Ontarians continue to see more cuts, fewer services, and higher costs for everyday necessities like paying the bills for hydro or car insurance.  

In fact, today’s announcement comes at the same time that some Ontarians learned their auto insurance rates have gone up by much as 3.7%  instead of going down by 15% as the government promised back in 2013.

People deserve so much better than broken promises and ‘stretch goals.’ They deserve a government that will provide real opportunity for every Ontarian.”