Premier Kathleen Wynne says her Liberals rejected imposing tax hikes in the budget because “struggling” Ontarians are still getting over the recession.

“People don’t feel like they’ve got a lot of extra money,” Wynne said Friday on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.

“Why not an across-the-board tax increase? That’s not something people feel they can sustain right now. We’re trying to support people by providing services, helping families.”

Her comments came the day after Finance Minister Charles Sousa introduced a $131.9-billion spending plan, including a massive expansion of public transit, with an $8.5-billion deficit he vows to eliminate in three years.

The only tax increase in the budget — which will usher in the sale of beer in supermarket by Christmas — was a penny a bottle beer levy that begins this November.

Moody’s Investors Service warned Friday that while the budget shows “marginal improvements” from previous forecasts, “the return to balanced budgets by 2017-18 still faces considerable risks.

Sousa said his blueprint didn’t book any revenues from a proposed cap-and-trade system to curb industrial air pollution, something neighbouring Quebec has already implemented.

“It all depends on how we proceed,” said Sousa, who has faced repeated questions from opposition parties on slaying the deficit.

“Certainly in Quebec they’ve been able to provide for greater revenue,” he added in a post-budget news conference at Bellwoods Brewery, part of a craft brewing industry that has cheered budget changes that will broaden sales to supermarkets.

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean—Carleton) accused Sousa of appearing at the brewery to distract the public from more important issues like a provincial pension plan that will pinch employers.

“We have teachers on strike, nurses being fired, hydro bills increasing, we’ve seen . . . a carbon tax increase, we’ve seen a job-killing payroll tax increase so, naturally, the premier and the finance minister of Canada’s largest province would be at a brewery the day after the budget.”

Wynne, who has noted several times she is not much of a beer drinker, was not at Bellwoods with Sousa but attended the Toronto Festival of Beer on Friday evening.

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