Our five-year Open Ontario plan will create new opportunities for jobs and growth in our community.

We’ve made progress in our schools, hospitals, and other public services. The 2010 Budget protects that progress—while responsibly working to eliminate the deficit caused by the global recession.

Here are some highlights:

New investments in post-secondary education

Ontario’s colleges and universities play a critical role in equipping our people for success and preparing them to create the ideas, products, and jobs that will ensure our future prosperity and growth.

We’re ensuring that every qualified Ontarian who wants to go to college or university will have a space. Under our plan, 20,000 more students will go to college and university this September.

That’s 20,000 more students who’ll have the opportunity to become the doctors, teachers, scientists and tradespeople that Ontario needs to grow and compete globally.

By investing in students, we’re investing in Ontario’s economic future.

New investments in the North

We recognize the unique circumstances of Northern communities.

Northern industries have faced significant challenges in recent years. To help them compete, we’re creating a three-year electricity rebate program. This would reduce industrial electricity prices by about 25% for large facilities, and help protect and create jobs in the North.

And to help Northerners with the higher costs of energy in the North, we’re helping low- and middle-income earners through a new, permanent Northern Ontario Energy Credit. Eligible Northerners would benefit from up to $130 per individual, or up to $200 per family. In 2010, over half of Northerners would benefit.

Continuing to invest in families

Full-day learning is part of our plan to increase student achievement, build a stronger workforce, and break the cycle of poverty. That’s why we’re introducing full-day learning in almost 600 schools starting this September, with the goal of having full-day learning in all schools by 2015-16.

The federal government cut funding to 8,500 child care spaces in this province, but Ontario is filling the funding gap to keep all of these spaces open for our families.

Both of these investments will help our kids get the best start possible, and make it easier for parents to participate in the job market.

Continuing to invest in job creation and skills training

Our $32 billion investment in roads, bridges, transit, energy retrofits and other stimulus infrastructure projects are creating and supporting over 300,000 jobs.

Over 1 million Ontarians get skills training and employment assistance annually. We’ll also help an additional 30,000 unemployed workers get training under our Second Career strategy.

To further help those seeking employment and training support, we’re creating one-stop access to Employment Ontario.

We will continue to invest in our Summer Jobs program for youth, with a particular focus on high-needs neighborhoods. This program will support nearly 110,000 jobs and services for students this summer – at a time when the recession is disproportionately affecting them.

A realistic, responsible plan to eliminate the deficit

After three balanced budgets in a row, Ontario’s revenues declined sharply due to the global recession. Like other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world, we went into deficit.

We went into deficit to create jobs, stabilize the economy, and protect our schools and hospitals.

And we will not put job creation and economic growth at risk by cutting too much too soon; nor will we spend as if there is no deficit.

We will cut the deficit in half in five years, and eliminate it in eight years.

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Our plan will create an Ontario even more open to new ideas, new people, new investments—and new jobs.

For more information, please contact my constituency office, or visit:

www.ontario.ca/budget

www.ontario.ca/openontario