Numbers out today regarding Ontario's economic outlook aren't good.
The forecast from the Financial Accountability Office is a stark contrast to what the Wynne Liberals have been promising.
The province has pledged to balance the books by 2017-18.
The FAO, on the other hand, is projecting a budget in the red for the next five years.
It says the province may be able to get things balanced that year by selling off more assests, but maintaining that will be difficult and require additional ways to make and save money.
Chief Economist David West projects by 2020-21, Ontario's net debt is expected to rise by $64 billion dollars to $370 billion dollars. That's $20 billion more than projected in the Spring.
The FAO projects Ontario budget deficits of $5.2 billion in 2016-17 and $2.6 billion in 2017-18. Beginning in 2018-19, the deficit is forecasted to deteriorate steadily to $3.7 billion by 2020-21.
Progressive Conservative Finance Critic Vic Fedeli thinks he knows what's coming. "They will sell anything that isn't nailed down. That is the only way, according to the FAO, that they are going to balance artificially is by the one-time sale of assets. He also said 'what happens when you run out of assets to sell?' That's why we have the next five years of deficits.
Fedeli wouldn't be shocked if taxes get hiked, too. "They raised taxes 20 per cent in the last five years which, oddly, makes us the most taxed province in all of Canada and, at the same time, the most
indebted sub-national on the planet. It defies logic that you can be both."
Fedeli blames the bleak books on the provincial government's waste, mismanagement and scandals...pointing to $300 million, alone, spent on Hydro calamities.