And there will be plenty of those. Despite requirements by the province that hospitals, like school boards and municipalities, balance their budgets, there will be many cries for extra cash from all three sectors in the next 10 months. With the fallout from a jittery U.S. stock market and major layoffs announced in the automotive and high-tech sectors the province's economic performance was expected to dip in the first three months of this year, curbing any extra dollars. You can't fault him for that, paying down the debt is important. Expect him to do the same next spring.
Taxes are one source.
While the Flaherty delivered on the 1999 Blue Print promise of a 20 per cent income tax cut, the final cuts don't take place until January 2002. Given the fact he's done it before and the federal surplus is predicted to be well above Martin's projections this year, and with the focus on the need for infrastructure, health care and education spending, it's far more likely there'll be more extra federal dollars handed out before the year's done. Next on the revenue list is income from government enterprises. Then there is the profit from the province's electrical utilities. Ontario Power says it expects a some drop in earnings due to nuclear plant work and spending to meet tougher environmental guidelines, but Hydro One has boosted its customer base by 20 per cent, and given no major changes in the electrical market until next spring can be expected to boost its profits with those extra customers.