Ontario budget watchdog leery of Liberal promise to balance books by 2018

Ontario's budget watchdog warns there is a"significant risk" that the Liberal government will not balancethe province's books by 2017-18 as promised.

Financial accountability officer Stephen LeClair says there'sbeen a slowdown in the economy since the 2015 provincial budgetprojected growth of 4.3 per cent in each of the next three years.

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LeClair says growth will be just three per cent at best, which hewarns will make it harder for the Liberals to stick to the budgetplan to cap spending increases at just 0.5 per cent annually, downfrom 1.4 per cent in each of the past four years.

He predicts slower economic growth will lead to a drop in revenueof up to $1 billion from the budget forecast for the current fiscalyear, which he says will make it even more difficult to curbgovernment spending.

LeClair's office examined a number of scenarios affecting thegovernment's finances and determined there will be a deficit of $5.2billion next year and a shortfall of $3.5 billion in 2017-18.

And he says the Liberals would have to keep spending increases to1.4 per cent and have economic growth of 3.3 per cent to get thedeficit figures that low.