TORONTO, ON — Bonnie Crombie, Leader of Ontario’s Liberals, has released the following statement:
“Today we learnt that a majority of Ontarians are against Doug Ford’s billion-dollar boozedoggle, and it’s no surprise why. Rather than hiring more family doctors, or reducing class sizes, Doug Ford has given a billion dollars or more of taxpayers’ money to wealthy insiders, just to have booze in big-box stores a year early.
“Last week, Doug Ford’s Finance Minister conceded that the government hasn’t been transparent about the costs of the boozedoggle, stating he would ‘update the numbers as the market opens,’ and that ‘there’s always going to be costs.’ His walking back of the purported costs comes as polling reveals most Ontarians don’t want to pay a cent to help enrich big-box grocery stores, and multinational brewers.
“At the same time, we’ve learnt that Doug Ford personally intervened in the LCBO to get them to buy paper bags. Ford is wasting time on how you carry home a bottle of wine, while patients wait hours for urgent medical care, people are stuck in gridlock, and kids are falling behind in school. It’s clear Ontario families are not a priority for Doug Ford.
“Doug Ford thinks he can hide from accountability on the boozedoggle, but Ontario Liberals will continue to demand answers. We know the costs could well exceed one billion dollars, and we’ve asked the Auditor General and Financial Accountability Officer to help end the cover-up.
“Doug Ford has put his friends first, and Ontario families last. His summer of investigations will show us once again that Doug Ford can’t be trusted to help anyone except for his rich friends.”
What Doug Ford Could Have Done With $1-Billion instead:
- Hire 13,260 new nurses or 10,500 teachers
- Build a brand-new hospital
- Build 7,875 affordable housing units
- Double funding for school repairs
- Cut the small business tax rate in half for two years
- Make homes more affordable by delivering a 25% rebate on Development Charges for a year
- Reinstate GO train service between Toronto and London
- Deliver two-way all-day GO service between Toronto and Niagara Falls
- Widen the rest of Highway 69 in northern Ontario
- Boost wages for 147,000 PSWs to $25 / hour
- Provide 300,000 Ontarians with a 50% rebate for installing heat pumps
- Install 7,000 fast, public EV chargers for Ontario drivers