CREDIT: CP24.COM
Kathleen Wynne discussed the provincial budget with the media in May.

Our newly elected provincial Premier Kathleen Wynne has only been in office for a few short months, but she already has the huge responsibility of deciding how Ontario's money will be spent.

Wynne is already under scrutiny from the opposition NDP, particularly leader Andrea Horwath. With the budget plan released at the beginning of May, the NDP is actively finding ways to change it, but not under Wynne's watch. “This is not an open-ended discussion,” Wynne said in early May during a conference call to media in Southwestern Ontario. “We have worked very hard planning this budget and will not change everything to make the NDP happy, but there is room for tweaking.”

The Premier might have to do more tweaking this budget than she expected, with Horwath and the NDP having the final say before this budget is passed. At the May conference call, Wynne addressed concerns about the budget and how the money will be spent. She also fielded a number of questions from various media outlets and addressed issues that Canadian youth are currently facing.

How will the new budget affect students? What can we expect to get out of it?
“We have kept our commitment to the 30 per cent tuition reduction and we have also placed restraints on tuition hikes, but I think our new Youth Job Strategy program is really going to help young people find jobs after they go to school, find internships and other opportunities, so when students finish school, the transition into the workforce is much easier.”

What is the Youth Job Strategy?
“In the new budget we have a plan to distribute $295 million over two years to youth jobs. This strategy should generate jobs for 30,000 youth across Ontario and get people working. The Youth Job Strategy has a few components to it, and one of the most important is helping young entrepreneurs start up their own businesses. Many smart, talented individuals have great ideas and the skills to start their own companies, but just don't have the cash to back it up. The Ontario government giving support to these young entrepreneurs is one of the most important things we as the government can do. Our Youth Job Strategy will help these people not only create jobs for themselves, but jobs for other people.”

You're a big believer of public transit, with your stance saying the GTA needs a massive overhaul and needs to spend around $20 billion in 10 years to fix it ... How often do you yourself take public transit and what specifically is your plan to fix it?
“Well, not as much as I would like to anymore; I mean, with my busy schedule running around there just isn't enough time, but I like to take it as much as I can. When I was living (in Toronto) going to University of Toronto, I used to take the Toronto public transit all the time. I also have lived in the Netherlands for three years and it was easier and much more accessible to take the public transit there than drive a car — and this is when I had two young children with me to carry around. To fix our public transit system, we need a dedicated revenue stream, and this means a 2 per cent of tax on gas going to funding public transit. Our roads are congested here in the GTA, so we need to make gridlock a thing of the past and work on public transit.”

Andrea Horwath has set up a budget feedback website where people can voice their concerns about the budget ... Have you looked at the website proposal for budget tweaks?
“We haven't gotten a concise budget feedback; Andrea is going out there and talking to the Ontario people now. Once she is done, hopefully we can sit down and get this thing passed.”