But the lion’s share of the savings he identified came from cutting some of the Liberal government’s most treasured achievements, including:
• scrapping or revamping full-day kindergarten;
• raising the 20-student class-size cap in junior grades to 23 children and increasing the average in junior grades from 24.5 to 26 students and from 22 to 24 in secondary school;
• ending the Ontario “clean air benefit,” the 10 per cent rebate to electricity bills that costs the treasury $1 billion a year;
• cancelling the new 30 per cent Ontario tuition grant for college and university undergraduate students unless the overall post-secondary budget can be kept to a 1.5 per cent rise;
• extending the period municipal social service costs will be uploaded back to Queen’s Park by two years to 2020
• amalgamating some of Ontario’s 151 hospital corporations.
But Drummond urged against “across-the-board cuts,” wage freezes or targets for civil-service job reduction, though he implored the government to be creative.
“Do not hang on to public assets or public service delivery when better options exist. Consider privatizing assets and moving to the private delivery of services wherever feasible,” he said.
Lots of do-able things in there. I wonder who will light their hair on fire on freak out over this report? I heard Union Leader Sid Ryan bitch that it wasn't in Drummond's power to increase corporate tax rates.
