2012 Ontario Budget To Pass

Published: June 19, 2012 05:32 pm EDT

Reports from a Queen's Park press conference indicate that after two days of committee meetings Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan will return the Ontario Budget "relatively intact" to Premier Dalton McGuinty and it's expected to be passed in a second reading on Wednesday.

"Because the NDP has broken their word twice, we aren't taking anything for granted," said Duncan. "We'll be watching the NDP closely to ensure they don't backslide yet again. And if they don't backslide again and the bill passes, there will be no election."

Finance critics from both opposition parties, NDP's Michael Prue and PC's Peter Shurman, stated that they are optimistic the budget will be passed in the legislature tomorrow.

Late last week, McGuinty threatened a summer election as the NDP and PC committee members voted in favour of significant changes to the budget legislation. McGuinty targeted NDP leader Andrea Horwath in a statement for reneging on a verbal agreement to allow the budget to pass while Horwath stated that she had only agreed to allow the budget to move to committee stage where her party would seek improvements to the bill. On Monday, Horwath withdrew nine of 13 amendments she sought during committee meetings regarding labour laws.

"Essentially you've got the most popular leader in Ontario, Andrea Horwath, who is polling at 30 points ahead of Mr. McGuinty, and they're trying to swipe, that's all this is about," said NDP house leader Gilles Bisson of McGuinty's election threats and accusations against Horwath for backtracking on a budget deal. "Throw enough mud on the wall, hope that it sticks and quite frankly it's not befitting of a Premier to do this."

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