Local reaction to the provincial budget
Posted Mar 27, 2012 06:56:52 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It seems major local projects have been spared from the axe in the province’s cost-cutting 2012 budget.
Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy tells 570 News, “the projects that are near and dear to our community’s heart are going ahead. There were some unfortunately mischievous rumours. Cambridge (Memorial) Hospital is going ahead. Rapid transit, all the infrastructure programs, are going ahead.”
The expansion at CMH was spared while major projects at four hospitals in other parts of the province were scrapped. Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig says he’s pleased, “and certainly after waiting approximately 12 years behind the other two hospitals, this announcement certainly hits home in terms of good news.”
That said, Craig has some concerns about the budget, saying, “we don’t know, in particular, how it’s going to affect us. But I can certainly guarantee there will be downloading of some form onto the cities and that’s going to affect tax rates.”
Funding will also go ahead for the Region’s rapid transit project. Regional Chair Ken Seiling tells 570 News, “There was no indication that there would be any major cuts in any of the major transit programs and the signals from the government clearly are that they’re going to continue to fund us.”
On the education front, Conestoga College President John Tibbits says overall the government is continuing to invest in college education. He does however, have a couple of concerns. “They’re going to take away $750 for every international student that we bring in and that’s a bit of an issue for us and Conestoga is going to lose a special grant starting in 2013 that’s called a rural grant…”
That said, Tibbits says, “It could have been a lot worse for us.”
Meanwhile, President of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, Catherine Fife, says overall, education came through the budget process with integrity. However, she says there were some issues that came as a surprise. “One of them was the proposed amalgamation of some school boards. We’re thinking that that may deal mostly with northern boards. On the whole though, we are happy that the government has maintained their commitment to the full-day kindergarten.”
From a business perspective, the head of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce says the jury is still out. President and CEO Ian McLean says it’s good to see the government starting to address the deficit but, “they also have, at the same time, frozen corporate tax cuts that were in place and that businesses have come to rely on. So, that’s not a very positive move in our minds.”
