Ontario Premier Doug Ford, right, and Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell arrive ahead of the speech from the throne to open the new legislative session at the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park in Toronto on Thursday, June 12, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

TORONTO — The first speech from the throne from Premier Doug Ford’s government leaves out any specific timeline for returning the province’s books to balance.

Delivered Thursday afternoon by Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the speech was largely a repeat of Ford’s “for the people” campaign speeches. But it used more pointed language. For example, calling carbon pricing “punishing” and saying that “onerous restrictions” heap “suspicion and scorn” on the police.

Left out of the speech was any reference to Indigenous Peoples and none of it was delivered in French.

The speech included no new promises, and on the issue of Ontario’s deep deficit, it made no mention of Ford’s promise to get back to black within his first mandate.

“Ultimately your government intends to return Ontario to a balanced budget on a timetable that is responsible, modest and pragmatic,” Dowdeswell said.

[READ MORE: The known unknowns of a Doug Ford government]

During the campaign, Ford repeatedly told reporters that the province’s nearly $12-billion deficit would be flattened in his government’s first term.

For example on May 23 he said: “we aren’t going to balance the first year, maybe not the second year but we will balance maybe the third or fourth year, our goal is to balance the budget.”

Speaking to iPolitics after the speech, neither Finance Minister Vic Fedeli nor Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy would repeat Ford’s promise to balance the books within the government’s mandate. Instead both said the first order of business is to confirm the exact size of the deficit with a commission of inquiry.

“The word ‘reasonable’ is the word that we’re going to use because it’s a reasonable timeframe,” Fedeli said.

The auditor general and financial accountability office have both pegged the deficit near $12 billion.

Bethlenfalvy said a “reasonable” timeframe “you’d think would be in the first mandate but I can’t say that now because we haven’t seen the magnitude of the problem.”

“Job number one is to stop digging and once you stop digging we’ll see how high the hole is to jump out of.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath suggested the reason the timeline was removed is because squaring the government’s promise to cut taxes and balance the books without cutting services won’t work.

“You’re not going to be able to reduce corporate taxes and personal taxes of the rich and still be able to balance a budget. The math doesn’t work out,” she said. “Maybe Mr. Ford needs to go back to the basics when it comes to math.”

The speech from the throne follows a busy two weeks for the new government in which it struck a deal with Hydro One for its CEO to retire and its board to resign, hit pause on several Liberal bills, rolled back sex education in schools, confronted the federal government over asylum seekers and set the wheels in motion to end cap-and-trade and green energy projects. And Dowdeswell set the table for a busy summer session ahead.

The government, she said, is pledging to “take a number of immediate and longer term steps” to tackle the challenges of a trade war with the United States and Ontario’s fiscal troubles.

“We cannot afford to dither or delay. To overcome these challenges we must challenge the status quo. Reject old compromises. And embrace change,” she said.

Fighting ‘oppressive’ and ‘punishing’ taxes

Characterizing the province’s taxes as “oppressive” the speech reiterated promises to cut taxes for low and middle income earners and corporations.

Dowdeswell also restated the pledge to end what Ford calls the “cap-and-trade carbon tax,” which the speech said is “punishing” Ontario families and businesses.

[READ MORE: Ottawa to impose Ontario carbon tax when Ford scraps cap-and-trade]

While committing to standing “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the federal government on the NAFTA file, Ford is promising to go guns blazing against any federal carbon tax that the Trudeau Liberals have said would replace Ontario’s outgoing cap-and-trade system.

“Your government will use every tool at its disposal to fight those who would hurt Ontario families and jobs by imposing such a tax on our province,” Dowdeswell said.

Promises reiterated in throne speech:

15,000 new long term care beds, the platform promises this within five years.

$1.9 billion for mental health care over 10 years.

Scrapping the “failed” discovery math curriculum.

Repealing the current sex-ed curriculum and replacing it with the curriculum from 1998 until the government can consult on a new one.

Increasing supports for parents of children with autism.

Partnering with Toronto and the GTA to build a “world-class” transit system.

Ending “unfair, unaffordable green energy contracts.”

Building a new war monument to commemorate Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

Created a dedicated hotline for military families.

“Freeing” police from “onerous restriction that treat those in uniform as subjects of suspicion and scorn.”

Give police tools, support and resources to protect from the “menace of drug, gun and gang related violence.”

Expand the sale of beer and wine to convenience stores, grocery stores and big box stores.

Follow @MariekeWalsh