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The Liberals seem only too willing to impose some kind of new tax to pay for public transit, but won’t block the HST exemption for business, complained Horwath.

“You’re asking a single mom who struggles every day to dig deeper into her pocket while you’re telling corporations, that have been doing very well by this government, that they can get another tax break that’s going to add up to $1.3 billion,” she said.

“It’s not balanced and it’s not fair, and we’ve said all along we want to see a balanced and fair approach to the budget.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne said she was surprised the NDP aren’t on side with her in looking for new revenue tools to pay for public transit, and agreed the Liberals would consider the NDP’s list of desired tax changes before the budget is introduced.

“We need to look at those,” Wynne told the legislature.

“But that does not negate the need to have a serious discussion about finding revenue streams and building transit. We cannot continue to deal with the loss of productivity that is engendered by the congestion and the near-gridlock that we’re confronting.”

The Liberals have already reduced Ontario’s corporate tax rate from 14 per cent to 11.5 per cent, but had to back off a scheduled cut to 10 per cent in order to get NDP support for last year’s provincial budget. They also had to agree to an NDP demand for a new tax on incomes over $500,000.

The government is mistaken if it thinks corporations are using their tax breaks to help create jobs, said Horwath, who pointed to reports Canadian banks have been contracting out Ontario jobs to foreign workers.