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“But we are broadly committed to reducing the burden on job creators in terms of the tax burden and the regulatory burden in such a way that they are able to be successful locally, but also compete,” Phillips said Wednesday after speaking at Bloomberg’s Canadian fixed-income conference in New York.

The finance minister pointed to steps the province had already taken, such as a pledge to cut 25 per cent of regulatory requirements for businesses by 2020.

Ontario’s PC government, led by Premier Doug Ford, also pledged in their spring budget $3.8-billion in tax savings over six years via faster write-offs of capital investments for businesses, mirroring a step taken by the federal Liberal government.

Ford’s government said it would parallel such a federal measure in their 2018 fall fiscal update, and the commitment took the place of a campaign pledge by the PCs to cut the province’s corporate income tax rate to 10.5 per cent from 11.5 per cent.

“Our trajectory and our record are quite clear on this, but you will have to wait for future statements and budgets for the specifics,” Phillips told the Financial Post when asked about any future tax relief.

Possibly standing in the way of any big tax cuts is Ontario’s net debt, which has been forecast to hit $360 billion for 2019-20. Phillips — the former chairman of the board of directors of Postmedia Network Canada Corp., which owns the Financial Post — has said the coming fiscal update would show the Ford government is on track to beat its previous 2019-20 deficit projection of $10.3 billion. The Ontario Tories are aiming for a balanced budget by 2023-24, after the next provincial election.