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BY JASMINE PICKEL

Premier Doug Ford was elected to clean up the fiscal mess in Ontario, but his government’s attempts to do so have been hard to watch.

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If Ford doesn’t fix his strategy, he may lose his chance to fix the province.

Ontarians want less spending. We just have one request: save smarter.

Here are a few ideas.

Instead of starting with the autism file, let’s look at Ontario’s single largest expenditure item: the salaries of government employees.

About half of all provincial spending — $72 billion annually — goes to government employees. A 2018 Fraser Institute report shows their wages are 11% higher than their non-government counterparts, in addition to receiving better pensions and retiring earlier. Bringing public sector wages in line with those in the private sector would save close to $8 billion and go a long way toward eliminating the nearly $12 billion dollar deficit planned for this year.