Members of the Ford government are touting the 2023 budget as a resilient plan for an uncertain road ahead while opponents are claiming Premier Doug Ford has “Missed the moment.”

On Thursday Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy released Ontario’s 2023 Budget: Building a Strong Ontario. The Pickering-Uxbridge MPP said it’s a plan that navigates ongoing global economic uncertainty with a responsible, targeted approach to help people and businesses today while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations.

“Ontario’s economy remains resilient, but the road ahead continues to be uncertain,” said Bethlenfalvy. “Our government has the right plan to navigate these challenges. We are building Ontario so we can have a strong economy for the future and the infrastructure needed to support growth across the province.”

The government’s plan is taking significant actions to drive growth by lowering costs, getting key infrastructure projects built faster, and attracting more jobs and investment to help businesses, families and workers. Highlights include:

• Launching the new Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, which would provide a 10 per cent refundable Corporate Income Tax credit to help local manufacturers lower their costs, invest in workers, innovate and become more competitive.

• Attracting over $16 billion in investments by global automakers and suppliers of EV batteries and battery materials to position Ontario as a global leader on the EV supply chain.

• Providing $224 million in 2023–24 for a new capital stream of the Skills Development Fund to leverage private-sector expertise and expand training centres, including union training halls to provide more accessible, flexible training opportunities for workers.

By working for workers, keeping costs down and providing better services, everyone will have an opportunity to take part in and benefit from Ontario’s plan. Highlights include: 

• Providing financial support to more seniors by proposing changes to expand the Guaranteed Annual Income System (GAINS) program, starting in July 2024, to see 100,000 additional seniors be eligible for the program and the benefit adjusted annually to inflation. 

• Investing in supportive housing with an additional $202 million each year in the Homelessness Prevention Program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program to help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness, struggling with mental health and substance use, those escaping intimate partner violence, and support the community organizations delivering supportive housing.

• Helping more Ontario students becoming doctors by investing an additional $33 million over three years to add 100 undergraduate seats beginning in 2023, as well as 154 postgraduate medical training seats to prioritize Ontario residents trained at home and abroad beginning in 2024 and going forward. Ontario residents will also continue to be prioritized for undergraduate spots at medical schools in the province.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)

• Starting in fall 2023, expanding the program to allow pharmacists to prescribe over-the-counter medication for more common ailments, including mild to moderate acne, canker sores, diaper dermatitis, yeast infection, pinworms and threadworms, and nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.

• Providing an additional $425 million over three years to connect more people to mental health and addictions services, including a five-per-cent increase in the base funding of community- based mental health and addictions services providers funded by the Ministry of Health.

“Today’s budget delivers increased investment in the critical infrastructure, health care, and education, training and labour resources necessary to move Bay of Quinte and our province forward,” said Todd Smith, MPP for Bay of Quinte. “It also puts us on a path to balance and to position ourselves well financially to manage anticipated growth.”

Official Opposition Leader Marit Stiles of the NDP took Ford’s Conservatives to task on a budget, stating it fails to meet the moment. Stiles said she has a vision of an Ontario with more opportunity and prosperity for everyone.

“Ford’s Conservatives want you to think that this is the new normal – that this is as good as it gets. But things are not normal in Ontario right now,” said Stiles. “Ford’s budget fails to meet the moment, and shows he isn’t interested in making the investments we need in public health care, affordable housing, or education – all the things that make Ontario a place where people want to live, work, learn, and grow.”

Stiles was critical on a number of shortcomings in the budget including Bill 23, stating the Conservatives are shortchanging municipalities through massive cuts – meaning families will pay higher property taxes for poorer services. Funnelling public money into private health care facilities run by insider friends means longer wait times, more ER closures and more nurses out of the sector.

“For people who are being priced out of their own  community, this budget offers little hope,” added NDP Finance critic Catherine Fife. “For nurses and teachers who are burnt out and looking for staffing reinforcements – this budget shows that none are coming. For people who need physical and mental health support to feel healthy and confident again after a brutal pandemic, this budget shows that their wellbeing is not a priority. Budgets are about choices. Today, Ford is choosing not to support people in this province.”

Fife added it will be even harder for Ontarians to find an affordable place to live and no increases to minimum wage, disability payments, education supports or rent control.

“Their own budget shows the province moving in the wrong direction on housing, and that their dismantling of the Greenbelt isn’t doing what they promised. The budget predicts fewer housing starts next year than this year, and they’re nowhere near on track to meet their stated goal of 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

• No minimum wage increases – and with inflation at a 40-year high, people will take a pay cut. That includes: No wage increases for nurses, health care workers, child care and education workers
  • No increases for people who rely on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program and no mention at all of the Autism Program
• No funding for base investments in education supports – that means we should expect teachers to get laid off, inadequate infrastructure support, and no mental health support
• No rent control to protect people from “renovictions.”