Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced Tuesday that following nine straight years of Liberal deficits, the Wynne government is on track to balance the provincial budget as promised in 2017-2018.

Talk about a pyrrhic victory.

When the Dalton McGuinty Liberals came to power in 2003, Ontario’s debt was $138.8 billion. Today it’s over $300 billion, an increase of more than 116%.

In 2003, Ontario’s debt-to-GDP ratio, a key indicator of the province’s economic health, was a manageable 27.5%. Today it’s close to 40%.

While Premier Kathleen Wynne has pledged to return it to the pre-recession level of 27%, the Legislature’s Financial Accountability Office said late last year the government has failed to present any fiscal plan to do so.

In their 14 years in power since 2003, first under McGuinty and now Wynne, the Liberals have produced balanced budgets, with small surpluses, in only three, the last one in 2007-2008.

Meanwhile, they racked up some of the largest deficits in Ontario’s history in the other 11.

Sousa boasted Tuesday this year’s deficit will be $1.9 billion, down from earlier projections of $4.3 billion.

But as NDP Leader Andrea Horwath noted, the Liberals overestimate their projected deficits every year and then pretend it’s a financial victory when their actual deficit comes in lower than their imaginary one.

What it really means is that the Liberals are lousy budgeters.

Progressive Conservative finance critic Vic Fedeli warned the Liberals will only balance the budget in 2017-2018 by raiding reserve funds and selling off 60% of Hydro One to the private sector.

That’s like selling the furniture to make your latest mortgage payment, the problem being you can only do it once.

Finally, what’s leading to next year’s balanced budget is not reduced Liberal expenditures but higher revenues — $2.5 billion more in taxes than the Liberals originally projected.

All this, of course, is in preparation for next year’s provincial election, so the Liberals can run on a flimsy “balanced budget” they achieved at the last possible moment after what will by then be 15 years in power.

Don’t be deceived. Their financial record — as Ontarians know from looking at their hydro bills alone — has been a disaster.