Dalton was in the Hammer today, handing out $30 million for the cleanup of Randle Reef.
According to this government site, "Randle Reef sediments contain very high concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coal tar. It is known that the PAHs are re-circulating and moving up into the food chain."
The money for this project only covers one-third of the cost of the cleanup. Dalton's hoping the feds will jump on board with more cash soon.
The point of this post - this is more of what John Tory calls "magic McGuinty money."
Tory says Dalton's taking the cash out of thin air.
In actuality, it's coming from the last budget, which was in March. The money, we're told, comes from that budget, but when the budget was released, it wasn't specifically allocated. The new education money released in Brampton earlier this week, for example, was in the education part of the budget, but no one was sure until earlier this week what that money would be used for.
Dalton could have told us back then what he was going to do with the money, but he decided not to. Why? Because then he wouldn't have been able to march all around the Golden Horseshoe the month before the election begins doling out money to everyone with a hand to outstretch.
Tory has taken the opportunity to bring up the health tax that Dalton instated in his first budget. Tory says we can get rid of that tax and still have enough money to do what we need to do. In fact, if elected, he has promised to get rid of the tax.
The PC leader was saying it again this morning, after finance minister Greg Sorbara announced that the government has a $2.3 billion surplus from last year. Sorbara also said that this year, so far, there's been a $400 million improvement.
The health tax puts roughly $2.5 billion into provincial coffers - that, as you can see, is roughly the amount left over after last year's spending.