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OXIDES 7---~- m - w -. IV. a detieit. For 1938 We are tlfel'g, tor a detieit of 83,000,000. This the annual average being repeated. This retards our recov ' and it weakens faith 'm our cum The budgeting committee has not done its duty. and a balanced budget for 1938 would have been a bright spot in the finan- cial world." "The reductions made are largely, in capital. That u well " tar as it iroes. hut in ordinary accounts we must go further. Revenues will tall ot necessity. and the Government cannot be blamed if the revenues do not come in. But it must budget in keeping with the revenues. Services must be (urtailcd to do this. but hard as it may be to do, economies must be made. "I would suggest. the following re- ductions in expenditure. temporarily at least," stated the Liberal House Leader. " would eliminate the pay- ment to the Teachers' Superannuation Fund of $720,000. I would eliminate the payment of 3500.000 to the Public Service Superannuation. I would re- duce the grant to the University of Toronto by 8500.000. and I would re- duce the payments for Grown prose- cutors try, AM)000. - _ ___ " would also reduce travelling ex- penses and car allowances by 3500.000. " you look ln the public nccounts you will see that nearly $1,000,000 ls spent in this way. and in these tunes it could be reduced by half. I would eliminate tor the time being the On- tario House in London. England. at a saving of 850.000. and I would reduce the sum in service and cut salaries to save 'A50.000." Premier Henry-We have already gone farther than_that. - . . A Mr. sineltur---Then I would put mine on top of that. And I would suspend repairs and alterations to public buildings. and the putchase ot new articles. I would like to see some new furniture in the Opposition rooms. but I would not ask for it now. or course. there is the chance that I will not always be there. Could Cut Down. "This could be' done, and many more economies could be suggested. 0n the whole. 83.000.000 expenditure could be eliminated. and it should be. Why should we borrow money to keep w, an establishment that will not carry itself? The thing is to make the Province pay its way-and I be- lieve it ean---without hurting the service. We would be living within our means and we would have a balanced budget. Nothing less is good financing. and nothing else can give the public confidence. "As t) capital expenditures-ttttte should be kept to a minimum. We should spend only on bare necessities. We must do without other things. as "tntiivltiuuls are doing without them. The requirements tor today are the balancing of annual budgets. the cut- ting cut ot capital expenditures and the cutting cut ot politics and getting down to business. The satiation Is not hopeless. and I am not painting a blue-ruin picture. I am just painting it so that the people may see the situ- aticn as it is and.see_§ way let:".,,, He reminded I was the tonnes! criticized. and th under the Drury amounted to $24 ot the Conserv $14,000,000, whilt the areas debt of creased trom $97 393 Of this 8: amoumen " .6'P"""'"' u", of the Conservatives had totalled $14,000,000. while from 1920 to 1932 the gross debt of the Province had in- creased from 397.000.000 to 8570-419.- 393 Of this Mtt0,000,000 had been under the Drury regime and 3280.000.- 000 under the Ferguson and Henry Administrations. Expenses Grow. 4-3 "an annual During the same penou nu: .......... expenditure had increased from 817,- G00,000 to $52,173,086. "which under the old system would be $65,000,000 at least. Under Mr. Drury it went up from iiq,s00,000 to "9.000.000 und under the bonseriiEe? from $49,000,- 000 to $65.0U0.000. This is the picture -- h " 0min» and this is a tune ot from irr,500.000 to 859.0uu.uuu uuu under the eonservat)Ee? from $49,000,- 000 to 565000.000. This is the picture as it is today. and this is a. time ot almost economic collapse.", Recalling that he had criticized thrsernments tor the past decade tor their policies with respect to finance, the Llttettl House Leader remarked: "If my waning: had been heeded, we would not be where we no todey. I have been a consistent opponent of -iiitrisviitnnee." ' are momt. There Is no ex- "tfires liittteae to budget tor P's buoyant. There Is " all" - .. '""". ---"' Lnded the House that this fourteenth Budget he had and that the total deficits Drury Administration had to 824.500.000._ while lee te same period. the annual had increased from 817.- ts'2,i't3,08f, "which under stem would be $65,000,000 nder Mr. my At Kent ug Stating that at the ttrat of the ses- sion he had stressed the need for co- operation. Mr. Sinclair said he was continuing in that spirit, although he had been criticized tor it. " have with me, at any rate. Hon. Vincent Massey. General Organizer of the Lib- eral Party in Canada. He said at Windsor. 'Partisanship is out of place just now.' " The Government had commenced to economize. "But it is at least three years too late, The Prime Minister Lsaid. 'Conditions are the usual past- ]war conditions.' He cited the great l wars of the past, followed try depres- Vsions. The war has been over for fifteen years nearly. and four Govern- ments have held ottice. The picture I painted in opening has been created and the Treasury Board has not done Its duty ovtthe years." Mr. Sinclair spent some time on} the Highway Improvement Pund.i ierming it the "joker of Governments." l He called upon the Government to state It such a fund actually existed.' and, if so, what it was. He dealt with I the statute under which the fund was ' set up, and the contributions which were to be made to it, pointing out that a total of $240,025,128 was tsup-l posed to have been set aside tor it! over the period of years from 1920! when it was originated. i Sessional papers show that there is 2 a balance in the fund of 818,840,786. and that the balance in 1931 was $9,- [ 213,630. In 1926 there had been $26,266,305 added to the fund. and It a similar amount was added in 1933 the fund would amount to $45,107,000. I less some $ith000,000 due to reduc- ' tion in expenditures on highways. This ,would leave some 835,000,000, he esti- ,mated. Highways Fund. "What is the Government going to do? Is it going to let the fund in- crease? It the fund is set aside, the money must be available. And, it it is available it must have been bor- rowed. The Provincial highways debit is 8'M50,000. But this was not paid out Cross entries reduce it to 84,329,- 196. Capital expenditures on high- ways is $6,712,739. and the total ex- penditure on highways. capital and ordinary. is 810,578,586. And the high- ways estimates for 1932 were $668,000. but it debits the Highways Improve- ment Fund with $13,357,563. Why this debit when there was a. total ex- penditure ot $10,578,586. according to the public accounts? . . . AE, "And this $10,578,586 includes the vote in the estimates of $668,000, leaving $9,810,586 for the fund, whereas it shows a debit of $13,357.- iS63. or an excess of $3,546,977. I would like to know if there is such a. stund. and if so, what it is used for. [Is it used for something besides high- ways? The statute says that all road payments should be made out of the fund. but the claim is made that the gas tax goes to roads. But none of it goes on new roads. It all goes into the ordinary accounts, and is paid out to meet current expenses, part of it going for road maintenance. "In 1932 the gas tax 'unttunted.to "In 1932 the gas tax amounted to "2.341.237. and that of motor vehicles to 87.376.672. or a total of $i9,T1T,9i0. The road expenditure was 33.865347, leaving a profit from the motorists of 815,852,063. People have been fooled by this fund. but it is an over. We 1rrtotwtyrt _it goes. They borrow money and part of the gas - w..-" ___'__'d '7 iiiirpiiAGtVetraistaxtroesttPf interest on the borrowings. It ti hardly using us right to conceal such . a large fund as this, if there is such i a fund. It is rather difficult to ex- ', plain it other than as a rather clever l and ingenious method ot tooling the 1 people as to where the gas taxes go. i I would like the Government to state i if it, is only a bookkeeping account set I up to borrow trom," he said. I After scoring members ot the On- I tario Cabinet and terming them "sell- lseekcrs. with a score ot directorates! Iamong them." Hon. Harry C. Hmong ' Progressive Leader in the Ontario: legislature. yesterday declared. in his Budget address, that the position ot Right Hon. Arthur Meighen on the Hydro Commission "was a matter of public comment from one end ot the Province to the other." " propose to insert in this bill (the Public Commissions Act) a clause that would make it impossible for him, or any one else, to longer direct great "oiporattons, or any one of the half- Apr". dozen hide-out subsidiaries. speculat- ing in stocks whdse value is deter- mined and enhanced by contracts and deals made at the expense ot the pub- lie interest by the Hydro Commission, ot which he is the dominating mem- ber." declared Mr. Nixon. The Progressive leader roundly at- tacked the extravagance of the present Administration, and its system ot cross-entry accounting. which, he said, failed to show a true picture of the actual state of Ontario's position; he criticized the Government for inac- tivity during the early weeks of the present session, .wltichAroytrht. about a consequent last-tew-days' rush; and deprecated the attacks made on him- self as a former member ot the Drury Administration. bluntly telling the Government benches that Cabinet solidarity does not go so tar as 'o make him responsible for personal actions of other former Ministers. "Damon and Pythias" Analogy. "One has frequently heard before references to Cabinet solidarity," he said, "and I presume it refers to that Damon and Pythias relationship we see so beautifully exemplified in the Premier and his Attorney-General. I always knew it applied to questions of it gislation and administration, but to say that, it makes a Cabinet Minister' equally responsible tor the behavior', or crimes of a colleague is too ridicu- lous to be even seriously considered." " have not," he stated, "brought to your attention the question of ' Cabinet Ministers sitting on direcr torates. or I would be busy, because; this Cabinet of self-seekers has some) score of directorate; among them. But; I feel if this practice is eschewed and: l frowned upon by the Premier it would) 'never get too bad in the Cabinet. TI, 'think that the Attorney-General in: ihis heart agrees with me. I recall myi friend from Dufferin on one GiaiG/ some years ago, mentioning a. num- ber of directorates that the Attorney- 'Geneml had, and the Attorney-Gen- -era1 at once stated he had resigned 'every one when he entered the Cabi- Inet, so he must have thought there 'was an issue at stake, as I have no idoubt, directors' fees would jingle as 'pleasantly in his, pockets as in those iet any one, else." I Finances Believed Uncontrolled. Mr. Nixon declared that the itntgn- cial condition of the Province was "in such an astoundingiy uncontrolled condition that no one with any sense ot responsibility or appreciation oi conditions could lightly ask for a man- date from the people.? - - .. .. "Any leader," he declared, "would accept that responsibility only on con- dition that he would be supported in the most radical overhauling of the machinery of administration, and in the elimination of many so-called public services." The Progressive Leader paid tribute to the efforts of Liberal Leader Mit- chell P. Hepburn and defended him against attacks on Mr. Hepburn's statements on the financial condition of the Province, declaring that, while Government supporters had scoffed at many of his estimates on the magni- tude of indebtedness and expenditures, his forecasts had proved correct. He facetiously remarked that the only fault to find in Mr. Hepburn's cal- culations. when they were not en- tirely accurate. as in the case of the gross debt. was that the Liberal Leader could n'ot add " fast as the Government could spend. Hydro Investigation Cited. "Another instance ot Mr. Hepburn's inaccuracy occurs to me," he smil- ingly stated. "I remember being with him at a meeting when we were pro- testing against the appointment of W. N. Tllley, K.C., as sole counsel for the Hydro investigation, because he had been so royally treated by the H.E.P.C. and the Government, and the figure of $250,000 was suggested as the amount paid him. I will con- fess that I thought that beyond all sense or reason, and determined to and out. So, I have put a series of questions on the order paper and, while I realize I have not yet tut,, . thing like a complete return, what I have tuures up to over $315,000 so far, with many bills yet to come in, as he has not been paid for the Hydro investigation. and only a paltry $10,000 retainer trom the O.P.S. In this connection let me suggest to Mr. Tilley that he get his bills all in and paid ochre the change of Govern-