The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Why on Earth did Sudbury Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci feel it necessary to trash the NDP after his government’s budget passed in the legislature Tuesday with the help of a mass abstention by the New Democrats?
As the NDP and the Liberals came closer to a deal that would see Premier Dalton McGuinty’s minority government pass a budget that will allow the province to divest itself of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, the language from the two parties became more respectful, despite the obvious tension.
The NDP convinced the Liberals to agree to a 2% tax on those making $500,000 a year, boost child-care spending by $240 million, provide $20 million for northern and rural hospitals, and increase welfare and disability benefits by 1% ($55 million).
In return, the NDP dropped several demands, including a call to remove the HST on home heating and to retain the ONTC, which provides some bus, rail and communications services in the North.
After days of negotiations that resulted in what McGuinty called “a happy marriage” between the Liberals’ quest to cut the deficit and the NDP’s aim to increase spending in key areas, Bartolucci responded with these comments on his website: “The NDP’s position on the ONTC has been beyond hypocritical but today by way of the budget vote, they are smoked out of their hole –driven out of hiding, exposed to the public — however you cut it, we know the ONTC is not a deal breaker for the NDP. Today, we see their rhetoric for what it is: empty political posturing designed to win support in northeastern Ontario.”
He also trashed the NDP government of the early 1990s for cuts to the ONTC.
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