Despite a giant tax rebate for manufacturers and the resources industry, funding for low-income families, and $1.5 billion for job development, lobby groups representing those sectors still had harsh words for the McGuinty government in the wake of Tuesday's budget.

"The Ontario Liberal government failed again today in its budget to take serious action to deal with the crisis in manufacturing and forestry," said a statement from the United Steelworkers' Ontario/Atlantic director Wayne Fraser.

Mr. Fraser said the new budget initiatives had been limited to "small-scale corporate tax cuts," and training programs would only cover a tenth of the 200,000 Ontario workers who have lost their jobs in manufacturing and forestry.

"Once again, Premier Dalton McGuinty has refused to consider the kinds of significant steps that could reverse the damage," said Mr. Fraser. "Working families and hard-hit communities are being left to struggle on their own."

The Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, on the other hand, complained that the province was focusing too much on corporations, although it lauded the announcement of funding for health-care workers.

"Corporations are getting a $750-million tax cut while the poor get $167 million, and barely the rate of inflation for social assistance benefits. Minimum wage workers will still need to wait to 2010 to get a hand out of poverty. Guess who won this war?" stated Sid Ryan, CUPE's Ontario president. "We've seen that movie with Jim Flaherty directing. Ontarians don't deserve the rerun with a weak-kneed McGuinty giving tax cuts and getting rid of the government regulations that protect us."

Students also decried the budget as an "impoverished" one which fails to help families afford post-secondary education.

"Over the past 15 years, tuition fees and student debt have risen more than four times faster than the rate of inflation," said Jen Hassum, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "When thousands of Ontario students signed petitions calling for debt relief, a $150 textbook voucher wasn't what they had in mind."

Ms. Hassum said the budget's major concessions to education were centred around innovation incentives, rather than on students and families, and added that more could have been done with the $600-million surplus.

However, there were some bright spots for the McGuinty government, including a positive word from Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, who said the budget announcements were important steps for helping workers head off the impending recession.

"The Ontario government's announcement (Tuesday) that it will spend hundreds of millions on improving transit, roads, bridges, water systems and other projects will not only help rebuild our communities, but also create jobs at a crucial time," said Mr. Hargrove.

He added that the federal government should take a page from the province's book in dealing with the economic slowdown, saying, "In contrast, Jim Flaherty is wasting billions on corporate tax cuts that will have no measurable impact on investment or jobs."

For the full story on the Ontario budget, click here.