TORONTO - Next week's Ontario budget will outline a plan to find $1.5 billion in savings over three years to help rebalance the books, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan promised Thursday.

In a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade, Duncan hinted that some government programs will be on the chopping block as the Liberals work to eliminate the deficit by 2017.

But the Liberals won't slash front-line education or health care to staunch the red ink, he said.

"Just as we as a government and you as taxpayers cannot afford permanent deficits, Ontario cannot afford straight across-the-board cuts to programs and services," he said. "We have to set a goal to protect, in these lean times, our schools and hospitals. In order to meet this goal, we must continue to find new ways of doing the things we do."

One of the areas where the province will find savings are Ontario's aging jails, which Duncan said are inefficient because they don't hold as many prisoners as they could.

Moving prisoners to new, bigger jails in places like Toronto and Windsor will save money that will be redeployed towards policing and victims' services, he said.

Other government programs may be axed if there's someone else who can do it better, more efficiently and in a way that delivers better results for people, Duncan added.

However, there are no plans to sell off the province's big assets, such as the Liquor Control Board, he said.

"We have to be more creative and really look at how we do government better to get at waste and to be more efficient," he said.

There won't be any tax cuts either in Tuesday's budget, but Duncan promised to deliver "positive numbers" about Ontario's economic growth.

That fragile recovery could be jeopardized if the province doesn't stay the slow and steady course it's on to eliminate the deficit, he said.

Voters should be afraid of the Progressive Conservatives, led by former cabinet minister Tim Hudak, who will make deep cuts if they're handed the reins of power, Duncan said.

"What they are very clearly setting up to do is put us in a deeper deficit hole," he said.

"Seventy per cent of your budget is spent on health care and education," Duncan added. "You're going to have a situation like you did when Mr. Hudak was part of the Harris government, where you wind up closing hospitals, closing schools."

Tory finance critic Norm Miller said he doesn't believe the Liberals will ever stop their rampant spending.

"Look at their track record: they're the government that greatly increased spending by some 70 per cent," he said. "They're on track to double the debt of the province. I think they could be elected 100 years and they won't balance the budget."

Privatizing government services will likely end up costing taxpayers more, not less, said New Democrat Paul Miller.

"When your privatizing things, you're taking the chance that the population is going to pay even more, because you don't have the controls you'd had when it was under your auspice," he said.