Press Releases
We Pay More and We Get Less
(Queen's Park Report - September 3, 2010) I am convinced that Dalton McGuinty has become so comfortable in his job that he has lost all concept of how his taxing and spending are affecting Ontario families. Whether its auto insurance, tuition, gasoline or electricity, we are all paying more and getting less from the McGuinty government and it hurts.
Auto insurance is the latest hit. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, average rates in Ontario were $1,450 in February, compared to $1,080 in Alberta, $812 in Nova Scotia and $757 in Prince Edward Island. Now Dalton McGuinty has made it clear that rates are going up farther, starting September 1st.
For Dalton McGuinty, it was either crack down on those who game the
system through fraud, ambulance chasing and excessive assessments, or
crack down on Ontario families. Instead of cracking down on the
cheaters, who cost Ontario drivers $1.3 billion a year in premiums, he
chose to crack down on honest families by making them pay more in
premiums, and get less through legitimate claims.
Next is tuition. According to Statistics Canada, the average university
tuition in Ontario was $5,388 in 2007. With the expected 5% annual
increase, Ontario university tuition will hit $6,249 in 2010 – the
highest in Canada. With this $861 increase Ontario students can expect
less student-faculty engagement and the largest class sizes in Canada –
higher than peer jurisdictions in the United States. Here again,
Ontario families are paying more to get less.
Gasoline is another sizable portion of the family budget and it too has
gone way up. A Toyota Camry filling up once a week on average in 2007
would have cost $3,787 on gas. Now that Dalton McGuinty’s HST has come
into effect, this driver can expect to pay an added $303 per year thanks
to this greedy tax grab.
When it comes to hydro, things have clearly gotten out of hand. Since
May 1, 2010 Ontario electricity rates have increased by 12%. This rate
hike, when combined with the Green Energy Act, smart meters, hidden fees
and the HST, will cost Ontario families an additional $469 per year.
What’s worse is that there is nobody suggesting that rates aren’t going
to stop going up. Wait for time of use pricing!
Dalton McGuinty doesn’t seem to realize that these higher costs are
painful. Financial issues are a leading cause of stress on
relationships and families. Just thinking about how to pay all of these
new taxes and fees when jobs are lost or salaries are frozen is
unbearable for the average Ontario family. It is awful when a child
can’t go on a school trip or play on a team because mom and dad are
struggling to pay higher home heating costs, gasoline, hydro and auto
insurance premiums.
I think that Dalton McGuinty just doesn’t understand the average Ontario
family. He lives in a bubble that is protected by an OPP security
detail that guards him from average people 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. He lives in the tony Toronto neighborhood of Rosedale, in a home
owned by the Liberal Party and funded by taxpayers. He flies on a
government plane, is chauffeured around in a police SUV, and likes to
tell us that all of his new taxes and fees are good for us. He is
wrong.
It is not our destiny to be the most heavily-indebted, heavily-taxed,
heavily-regulated people in the country. Dalton McGuinty simply doesn’t
get it.