By Hub staff

Local Conservative MPP Bill Walker blasted the Wynne government's Throne Speech Thursday, saying it indicates the coming budget will be "all mirage and no restraint."

In a news release, Walker said the Liberal government's spending plans will put front-line services in jeopardy.

"Today Premier Kathleen Wynne set Ontario out on a path of higher taxes on working people and no plan for making Government live within its means," Walker said in the release.

"Their agenda creates doubt in my mind about the sustainability of our public services like health and education in the long run. Children and adults with special needs, people requiring mental health and addiction services and those living in poverty and requiring affordable housing are those who will be directly impacted and who I have extra concern for," he says.

"Their agenda also gives me great concern for the families and the employers in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound who are stretched to the limit and cannot afford to pay an extra $100 a month into the government's new compulsory pension plan."

Walker called the Liberal government's agenda "reckless."

"Focusing on private-sector job creation and balanced budgets is where we need to be heading today," he said, adding that the 2014 budget will spend $12.5 billion more than the government will raise in revenue.

Another disappointment with today's Throne Speech at Queen's Park is that it included no mention of rural Ontario's fair share of the gas tax revenues and school funding, Walker said. He added that small, rural schools will continue to face the threat of closure until the school funding formula is reviewed and fixed.

"Where's the confidence in the communities and people north of Toronto? Eleven years later, the Liberals' big government still isn't big enough to include rural Ontario," Walker said in the news release.