The Ontario government introduced a balanced 2017 budget totalling $141 billion on April 25.
“That means that we’ve got the opportunity to actually invest in some new programs,” said Liz Sandals, Guelph MPP and president of the treasury board.
She said the government made the conscious decision to take almost a decade to balance the budget after the recession.
“In 2008, 2009 when the recession first hit … we didn’t want to sort of do the slash-and-burn style of getting back to a balanced budget,” Sandals said.
“As a result of … that we’ve actually been able to manage expenditures to make sure that we’re spending our money well.
“We’ve also been able to continue to invest in healthcare and education and invest in new infrastructure.”
However, Wellington County MPPs, who form part of the official opposition Progressive Conservative Party, disagree.
“It’s a fake balanced budget,” Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece suggested in a press release.
“They’re pulling every trick in the book, and they’re doing it for one reason: to revive their sagging poll numbers.”
He added, “the biggest losers of this budget will be our grandchildren.”
Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott said the Ontario Liberals are playing a “shell game” in order to restore popularity.
“With an election expected next year and the premier’s approval rating at a historic low, the Liberals are desperately trying to divert attention away from their record of waste, debt, mismanagement and scandal,” Arnott stated in a press release.
“What Mr. Sousa neglected to explain is that about $5 billion of the revenue he’s counting on this year, including proceeds from the sale of Hydro One, can’t be counted on in the coming years.”
Sandals attributes the balanced budget to a growing economy throughout Ontario.
“It’s actually new revenue that we’ve been creating because we’ve been very careful about the way that we’ve climbed out of deficit,” Sandals said.
“So that means now that we’re in balance that we can actually take some of that money and spend it on some things that we think are really important to people in Ontario.”
Health care
Over the next three years the government plans to contribute $11.5 billion in extra funding to the healthcare system in Ontario.
Sandals said $4.5 billion of that “would have been the money that we … would have been investing anyway with … the incremental growth in the system,” and $7 billion is “what we’re calling a ‘booster shot’ to actually expand healthcare and to make some investments in areas where we think that we can provide better service.”
The government is also offering an additional $9 million over the next 10 years on top of the allocated $11 billion to the new hospital budget.
This means the new Groves hospital, to be built in Aboyne by the Wellington County Museum and Archives, is on track.
“That process is unfolding the way it’s supposed to unfold and when it gets to the point where it’s shovels in the ground, the money is there to pay for the building,” Sandals said.
Arnott also recognized the inclusion of the Groves project in the budget.
“We continue to work with the minister of health and his staff to urge progress on our new hospital in Centre Wellington, which we’ve been working on for more than a decade,” he said.
Another standout budget feature under the health care umbrella, Sandals said, is OHIP+ which gives any person under the age of 25 free prescriptions for 4,400 different drugs.
“This will ensure that every child in Ontario will have access to drugs that are paid for by the Ontario government,” Sandals said.
“You present the OHIP card for the child and the drugs are automatically paid for.”
She added, “I think literally almost for decades there’s been a conversation between provincial ministers of health and the federal government about (the) need to have a pharmacare program in Canada,” Sandals said.
“This is actually the first pharmacare program in Canada.”
The program is projected to cost $465 million per year and will take effect on Jan. 1 if approved.
Pettapiece and Arnott both pointed out that there’s no clear plan to roll out the program.
“Since they’re rushing the new drug program to meet a political timetable, consultation will likely be minimal, and there are bound to be huge problems as it’s implemented,” Arnott said.
Pettapiece also pointed out he’s unhappy rural hospitals and health care services “are not getting the support they need.”
Yet all publicly funded hospitals are receiving a 3 per cent increase in the operating budget.
“There’s some money that is specific to reducing wait times for things like hip and knee replacement,” Sandals said.
“One of the big holdups when people get frustrated is … people usually get in to see their family doctor reasonably quickly … but then if the family doctor makes a referral to a specialist that can take a long, long time to happen.
“So we’re actually putting $245 million in the budget to see if we can speed up some of the referrals to the specialists.”
Agriculture and infrastructure
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) acknowledged there is no new agriculture funding in this year’s budget.
“We’re disappointed in the lack of provincial investment,” OFA president Keith Currie said in a press release.
“OFA has been working closely with the provincial government to help them understand the immense potential our agri-food industry offers with proper investment and government support.
“We were expecting to see issues addressed in this budget about improved infrastructure, access to lower-cost energy in natural gas and fair distribution of Hydro One proceeds.”
In order to meet the Premier’s Growth Challenge of 120,000 new jobs by 2020, Currie said investments are needed.
“We’re ready to get back to work. It’s clear Ontario’s government needs a better understanding of our province’s agri-food and rural potential,” he said.
Pettapiece said the government needs to focus on infrastructure.
“For years, local municipalities have asked for stable, predictable funding for the infrastructure we need,” Pettapiece said.
Sandals said although there weren’t new funding announcements, established programs would continue.
“Basically, I think the reason that there isn’t a lot of text around agriculture is because the programs that are already there carry on,” Sandals said.
“But having said that, when you look at the infrastructure and you think about rural Ontario … there actually continues to be money going into infrastructure and that money is spread all over the province.”
She said the province dedicated $50,000 to expand trade initiatives that could go towards lobbying “on behalf of the supply managed commodities and try and protect those agricultural sectors, whatever it is on President Trump’s hit list.
“So there will be a lot of effort that goes into trying to protect the interest of agriculture in any trade talks and that isn’t something that shows up as we’re going to spend ‘x dollars’ on this in the budget.”
Tobacco
Sandals said the only tax increase this year is on tobacco. The government proposed that the tax on tobacco increase $10 over three years. As of April 28, tobacco tax increased by $2.
According to the government website, taxes on a pack of 20 cigarettes equals $3.30. On a pack of 25 cigarettes it is $4.12 and on a carton of 200 cigarettes it is $32.95.
“If you look at the health implications of smoking, then it actually seems to have been effective … as the price of tobacco goes up it actually does seem to have an impact, a correlation with the number of people who are smoking going down,” Sandals said. “Obviously this is revenue, but it’s also revenue that has an impact on public health.”
