Less than 24 hours after it was released, Ontario’s 2010 provincial budget has been generating a significant amount of criticism. Economist Hugh Mackenzie of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says that the budget “misses the point on economic reform”, putting deficit reduction ahead of jobs and penalizing social assistance recipients. Toronto Board of Trade President Carol Wilding says “this is not a good day for regional transit” as the budget slashes billions of dollars in new transit construction. Toronto Mayor David Miller is even more blunt, calling the $4 billion cut to transit capital funding “disgraceful” and “thoughtless”. Meanwhile, the 25-in-5 Network for Poverty Reduction is disappointed with the lack of progress on the province’s poverty reduction agenda, and calls the 1% increase in social assistance “playing small time.”