By DON PEAT / The Peterborough Examiner - Staff Writer

Building the Highway 407 extension across to Highway 35/115 is the top of the Ontario finance minister’s priority list, and yes, he says it will be a toll road.

In an exclusive panel interview with The Examiner on Monday during his visit to Peterborough, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said he would move heaven and earth to get the rest of the road built to help ease traffic pressures along Highway 401.

“That’s an incredibly important link to remove the pressure that’s on the 401, which is just embarrassing most days,” Sorbara said. “The extension of the 407 is all a matter of process, it’s not going to cost us anything because it will be funded by the tolls people pay to drive on it.”

Mistakes made on the last 407 deal will help the government on the next contract, Sorbara said.

“I’m pretty neutral on who owns and operates,” he said. “The question is what do the contracts say, what protects consumers and what ensures a quality of service.”

The last contract didn't do enough to protect consumers, Sorbara said.

Although the 407 is a toll highway, it is meant to be part of the basic infrastructure of transportation.

“It was on the planning books of the province since the late ’60s,” Sorbara said. “It wasn’t a luxury option.”

Dealing with the province’s infrastructure will be the story of the next decade, he said.

“Whether or not we can keep up with the demands,” Sorbara said. “Part of that is to dampen somewhat people’s expectations about how luxurious the next hospital should be.

“Balancing all those pressures will be the ongoing challenge of the government.”

Going into the Oct. 10 election, Sorbara said the government’s five priorities over the next four years, should the Liberals form the government, will be:

Tax cuts exist in a subset of those five priorities, he said.

“Part of my responsibility is to constantly monitor Ontario’s tax competitiveness,” Sorbara said.

“I’m concerned, for example that within Canada corporate income tax rates in Alberta are much lower than they are in Ontario and there is no doubt that has inspired some entities to re-domicile some of their income in Alberta rather than in Ontario.”

But looking at the tax options available, Sorbara said he would not take steps that would allow the province to fall back into structural deficits.

“With each budget, we look at the tax system and ask ourselves are there amendments to be made,” he said.

Sorbara said the government made progress on taxes in the last budget with changes to business education taxes, moving forward in the elimination of capital taxes and matching the federal government in capital cost allowance for manufacturing.

Speaking as the chairman of the Liberals election campaign, Sorbara said he doesn’t think Ontario voters are ready to throw the Liberals out of power.

Recalling the 2003 election in which Premier Dalton McGuinty was elected, a campaign Sorbara also chaired, he said as much as that campaign was an approval of the Liberals, it also was the voters’ judgment of the ruling Progressive Conservatives.

Sorbara said the 2007 campaign will focus on the Liberals’ past four years in government and how the two parties would govern in the next four years — particularly when it comes to managing the province’s education system.

“I think a big part of the debate is going to be on education,” he said.

“Mr. Tory has proposed to provide funding for a system of religiously based public schools and I think it’s clear that proposal ... within five or six years, would cost the province close to $1 billion a year or more.

“That money would be coming out of public education so that’s going to be a very significant part of the debate.”

Sorbara criticized NDP Leader Howard Hampton’s approach to energy.

“(He’ll) talk about not relying much further on nuclear energy,” Sorbara said. “I think that would be a disaster for Ontario, I would recommend people start to buy candles right away and stockpile them.”

As for criticism that the Liberals broke promises from the last election, Sorbara said he’s still confident in the government’s track record.

The government had tough decisions to make when faced with a deficit it inherited from the previous government, he said.

Over the last four years, the province’s financial circumstances have improved, Sorbara said, a promise of fiscal management he said the Liberals have kept.

“I think ultimately the voters are going to examine our record very carefully and it’s a record I’m very proud of,” he said.