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TORONTO — Ontario is planning to cut about $46 million this year from the provincial police budget, as the Progressive Conservative government tries to trim the province’s deficit.

The government’s expenditure estimates for this year show the funding drop, as well as scores of other cuts, including to health research, Legal Aid Ontario, library services and tourism offices.

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Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said the Ontario Provincial Police leadership understands that the province’s fiscal health needs to be restored. Ontario’s deficit is at $11.7 billion, which the government doesn’t expect to eliminate before the next election.

“We have some very creative, proactive things that the OPP are doing, like a very simple basic thing of adding more oil changes to our fleet of cars that will allow them to stay on the road longer,” Jones said in the legislature Monday.

“I have great faith in the leadership of the OPP to be able to manage these challenges within their existing allotment.”