TORONTO (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 31, 2003--The Province of Ontario's newly elected Liberal government yesterday issued a policy response to the larger-than-anticipated budgetary deficit in fiscal 2003-2004 (year ending March 31) unveiled on Oct. 29, 2003. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services believes that the announced budgetary measures should work to sustain Ontario's credit quality, subject to the government remaining committed to eliminating the deficit in fiscal 2004-2005, as was stated by Premier Dalton McGuinty in a luncheon speech on Oct. 30, 2003. The independent review of the state of the province's books conducted by the former provincial auditor, Mr. Erik Peters, revealed a wider-than-expected budgetary imbalance of C$5.6 billion in the current fiscal, amounting to about 8% of revenues. Standard
