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Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli defended a provincial budget Tuesday evening that has come under fire from critics for what they call heartless cuts.

The venue was St. Thomas’s CASO Station, where Fedeli spoke before about 70 members of the St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce in the building’s Anderson Hall.

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One novel idea the Tory politician proposed — which will became law later this year — is to fine the province’s finance minister and premier for missing fiscal benchmarks.

Had the legislation been in effect under the previous Liberal government, Fideli said, the Grit finance minister would have had to pay $40,000 out of his own pocket in fines for overspending.

He described Liberal spending as akin to using the Visa card to pay off the MasterCard bill.

And, he said, contrary to opposition critics and their allies indicate, spending “on what matters most” — namely, education and health care — has increased under the Progressive Conservatives since they came into power nine months ago.