Roy Brady
The Peterborough Examiner reports, “(Ontario) Finance Minister Dwight Duncan presented a budget Tuesday that includes measures such as public sector wage restraint, fee increases, cancelling scheduled corporate tax cuts and freezing social assistance rates.”
“Council of Canadians member Roy Brady, who participates in the new Occupy Peterborough group, isn’t happy with the government’s plan to make people on social assistance help shoulder the burden of reducing the deficit. ‘There it is again,’ he said. ‘The people who can least handle austerity are the ones who get nailed.’ Brady balked at the plan to freeze social assistance rates, commenting that too many years have gone by without a significant increase in social assistance even as other costs rise. ‘The cost of housing, the cost of food, utilities, they keep going up but the rate stays the same,’ he said. ‘People are really hurting.'”
“Trent University economics Prof. Torben Drewes (adds) that health care spending would increase by 2% instead of the typical 6% a year. …The government plans to save $6 billion by restraining salaries for teachers, school board administrators, hospital workers, physicians and other public sector workers. That’s one of the big ticket items in the budget, Drewes said.”
The full article can be read at http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3516485
