Mike Harris' Common Sense Revolution
On June 8 1995 the Mike Harris Conservative government was elected to power in the Province of Ontario. Harris throughout his campaign at the time talked of tax cuts, job creation among many other promises in the overall goal of balancing the budget and making Ontario a better place to live. As such, through Harris' "Common Sense" revolution platform, he outlined how it was going to be done and what he wanted to do in order to achieve his objectives. Since Bob Rae's NDP government created an $11.3 billion deficit during his administration, Harris had a lot of work to do and the people of Ontario wanted him to go through with his plan. It is interesting to point out that with the $11.3 billion deficit that was created, the NDP government was spending $1 million an hour more than what it brought in. Bob Rae's government hiked taxes sixty-five times and the welfare role was jam packed with 1.3 million people on the role. This chaos that was created was going to be fixed and Harris knew how to do it. Ernie Eves, the Minister of Finance played a large role in that game plan with the budgets that came down once a year. The most recent one was one of the final steps in Harris' plan to reduce the deficit, cut taxes and create jobs
. With the proposed budget, Harris called an election the following day and if this recent budget is to be implemented, he will have to be re-elected. In terms of job creation Ontario led the way again. Since September of 1995 539 000 new jobs have been created in which 96% of those were full-time. There are 374 000 fewer people on welfare thanks to the new workfare program. And with the re-election of another PC government, it is predicted that another 825 000 new jobs will be created in the next five years. No other government in the world has been able to create such economic boom than that of the Harris government. Innovation in the workforce, as it was already mentioned, was also an element of this budget. Innovation in the workforce means giving the workers the proper skills needed to fulfill the objectives of the company and be innovative for the Province's economy. They introduced eight new programs and tax credits that will help in this respect. They have introduced the Ontario Research Employee Stock Option Credit to help Ontario's R & D companies attract and retain highly skilled knowledge workers. From the SuperBuild Growth Fund that has been created to enhance innovation, $750 million will be used to help universities and colleges deal with the influx of students that will be created due to the double cohort year in 2003. They have expanded the Access to Opportunities program to create 23 000 new computer science and high-demand engineering spaces. Extend by a $100 million the Strategic Skills Investment program. Intensify the Cooperative Education Tax Credit for leading technology apprentices. The Federal and Provincial governments have worked to harmonize student loan programs by August 2000 to better meet the needs of 200 000 students and limit student debt. Providing funds for better distance education, new technologies and assisting teachers use them in the classroom. And finally providing $35 million for tuition scholarships for 10 000 top students with financial need with the hopes that the private sector will meet their financial commitment therefore doubling the amount of students who receive help. All of these programs are used to help people retain the skills that will make Ontario's businesses innovative. Infrastructure was another element of the 1999 PC budget. With all of the new money being spent on health care, new buildings and equipment will have to be built in order to develop these new programs. They pointed out that highways and education is important to spend money on but Health Care is a priority in this budget. As such, Harris is creating a SuperBuild Growth Fund which will spend $20 billion over the next five years for new health care infrastructure. This means the money will be spent on building hospitals, renovating existing hospitals, expanding other health care facilities to meet the needs of Ontarians. The first installment of $2.9 billion will be spent this year. This new money is positive for the growth on Ontario's health care system. With the number of people needing health care rising everyday with the aging of the baby boomers, more health care services are required in order to maintain a standardized level of health care quality. It should be noted that not all of the $20 billion will be spent on health care however the majority of it will be spent in this area. Money will also be spent on roads and bridges, new schools and so on. This new money will provide a positive outlook for Ontarians as many industries will benefit through this program with new jobs and increased revenue. Construction companies, engineers, material suppliers and so many other industries will benefit from this new program. Tied into this, Harris will also reconvene the Ontario Financial Review Commission to examine the current accounting and reporting practices including capital funding and financing. Other tax cuts included
Some common words found in the essay are:
Federal Provincial, Canada Ontario's, Growth Fund, Reduction Program, Province Jobs, Earlier Harris', Province Ontario, Innovators Alliance, Mike Harris', Minister Finance, tax cuts, health care, harris government, income tax, personal income, tax credit, property taxes, jobs created, personal income tax, recent budget, innovation workforce, act irresponsibly set, five installment plan, eves ernie qc, ernie qc 1999,
Approximate Word count = 2630
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
