Peter Bethlenfalvy

Ontario's Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy has been presenting balanced budget projections for years. Those projections keep proving optimistic. Each budget forecasts balance within the planning horizon; each subsequent budget revises the horizon further out. This is a pattern, not a one-time miss. The province's debt is manageable and the fiscal situation is not a crisis. But a Finance Minister who consistently presents fiscal plans that don't materialize loses credibility with the basic function of the job, which is to tell people honestly what the province's finances look like and what the plan is to get them where they need to be. Bay Street background doesn't exempt you from basic forecast accuracy.