The opposition parties are weighing in on Thursday’s fall economic statement from the province

New Democrat MPP John Vanthof says his biggest concern in the fiscal statement by the governments is cuts to the north.

“The initial ones that I flagged is the Ministry of Transportation is getting a cut so that doesn’t bode well for improvements to northern transportation or for improvements to winter road maintenance,” he says.

He says the previous governments fair hydo plan is still with us but there’s a bonus for residents.

“There still borrowing a whole bunch of money which means hydro rates will still go up in the near future. But atleast it’s going on the province’s books so people can see that their debt is going up because hydro bills are being subsidized,” Vanthof says.

Vanthof says efficiencies are another word for cuts. He says while it may be factually that no one is losing their job it’s also true that no one is being rehired to replace retiring workers.

He says the bad news hasn’t come yet especially in health care and the hallway medicine crisis.

“There’s nothing on how they’re going to do that. There was an announcement on 6,000 long term care beds but that was the same announcement the liberals made before the election,” he says.