Ontario’s Liberal government said in the 2012 Ontario budget it would:

• Find savings and curtail planned spending to the tune of $17 billion over three years, ending with a balanced budget in 2017-18.
• Record an average annual increase in revenue of 3.5% for the next three years, and average spending increases of 1.5%.
• Post a deficit for 2011-12 of $15.2-billion, $1-billion lower than projected in last budget
• Not increase taxes.
• Ask all workers in the public sector, including doctors, to accept a two-year pay freeze, with legislation threatened if they do not comply.
• Freeze pay for public-sector executives for another two years, for a total of four years.
• Cut subsidies to businesses by $250 million in 2014-15 under guidance from a new jobs and prosperity council.
• Cap clean-energy rebates on electricity bills to save $500 million over three years, affecting mainly businesses.
• Add an income test to the provincial drug plan for seniors for the first time: single seniors making $100,000 or more a year and couples earning at least $160,000 will begin paying more for medicine
• Cut the cost of public-sector pensions by limiting benefits, and merging pensions into a smaller number of larger plans that can generate a better return on investment.
• Freeze planned cuts to corporate income tax and business education tax, saving more than $2 billion over three years.
• Maintain the plan to fully implement full-day kindergarten, and keep reduced elementary-school class sizes.
• Change school-board funding to discourage them from keeping under-used schools open, eventually saving $70 million a year.
• Cap number of high school credits at 34 to curb number of students – now about 20,000 – who take a fifth year.
• Encourage consolidation of small school boards, saving $27 million.
• Set up a childhood obesity strategy to cut the problem by 20% over five years.
• Cancel four planned major hospital building projects: three in rural facilities, one in Toronto.
• Increase Ontario child benefit from $1,100 to $1,200.
• Close five “inefficient” jails in small cities or towns.
• Shutter seven tourist-information centres with few visitors, as more people get their travel information online.
• Cut funding for interviews with drivers who lose nine or more demerit points, which rarely leads to suspended licence
• Reduce income-stability funding to farmers by $20 million a year.
• Cut overtime in the OPP and jails.
• Cut transfers to school boards for a number of programs by close to $300 million over three years.
• Save $200 million over three years through lower-than-expected demand for nursing homes.
• Cut funding to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum and other cultural institutions.
• Delay and cancel infrastructure projects to cut borrowing by over $3 billion
• Sell off or close parts of the Ontario Northland rail service, saving $250 million over three years
• Cut of nearly 1,000 full-time government jobs.

National Post

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/27/ontario-budget-2012-highlights/