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A new Ontario government should dig the report out and dust it off

The report, released the following year, included recommendations in just about every area of public service in Ontario including power infrastructure, labour relation, liability management, health and social spending. There was emphasis on accountability and value for money, which could perhaps have helped prevent some of the billion-dollar spending boondoggles that emerged later in the Ontario Liberal government’s reign.

Drummond was a long-time federal civil servant who had served both Conservative and Liberal governments, and so the report was pragmatic rather than ideological. Nevertheless, the document largely set out a plan to restore Ontario’s fiscal finances, including eliminating the deficit and improving future economic growth rates. Balancing the budget would require tough decisions on spending including reduced benefits for some. Given that many benefit programs were not sustainable in their current form, the government would need to decide how best to target benefits to those who need them most.

The report recognized that after a few years of significant fiscal restraint that would be required for deficit elimination there might need to be some reprieve, given challenges such as weak productivity growth. But not much of a reprieve: Spending simply could not return to recent trends and public services would need to be affordable.

Despite commissioning the report, the Liberals subsequently essentially put the recommendations deep in the storage vaults of Queen’s Park, never to be consulted again. Six years later, if a different government takes over, it should dig the report out and dust it off. It would be better late than never, and Ontarians will be better off for it.