The provincial budget unveiled Tuesday includes too much one-time funding and too few permanent initiatives, York-Simcoe MPP Julia Munro said.
For example, the Liberal government's budget includes $400 million to improve roads and bridges in communities outside Toronto, but that money was announced for this year only.
"How do people plan when you give them one-time funding?" Munro, a Progressive Conservative, asked.
Munro also noted $400 million for all of the municipalities outside Toronto will not go very far.
"The whole issue of (traffic) gridlock is just a permanent reminder the need for stronger, well-planned infrastructure," she said.
Perhaps the biggest announcement in the budget was a new Skills to Jobs Action Plan, worth $1.5 billion over three years.
"This budget is about making sure people have jobs and Ontario's economy grows," Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said.
The plan is intended, in part, to help people from the manufacturing sector who have lost jobs due to the recent economic downturn.
It includes $355 million for a Second Careers Strategy to help 20,000 of those people find new careers.
However, Munro noted about 10 times that amount of people have lost their jobs.
"What happens to the rest?" she asked.
While the budget kept taxes for the average citizen steady, it did include $750 million in tax measures over four years to encourage business growth.
"It's a step in the right direction, but it will be a matter of whether or not it's too little, too late," Munro said of the initiative, which is meant to help jump-start the economy.
For agriculture, the budget includes $56 million over four years to expand programs that encourage people to buy farm goods produced in the province. It also includes a proposal to expand the land transfer tax exemption to include land transfers from family farm corporations to individual family members.
Munro said she was disappointed the budget included little for agriculture.
"In our area, I get many calls from farmers who are pretty upset," she said
On a positive note, Munro said she supported the new property tax grant for senior homeowners with low and moderate incomes.
The program, worth $1 billion over five years, will provide those seniors with up to $500 per year to help with their property taxes.
To view the entire budget or a variety of budget summaries, or to watch video on the budget, visit ontariobudget.ca.
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