The path to balance will require acute financial restraint
The Ford government has dropped another unsexy budget in troubled times, with a painful path back to balance.
Ontario’s financial picture is less rosy than this time last year, when the government projected a modest $200-million surplus in 2024–25, growing to $4.4 billion by next year. Despite social services spending staying at $20.1 billion from 2025 to 2027, Bethlenfalvy said it’s not a “freeze.” “What if I told you there's a place where more than 16,000 people are unhoused every night, when the average one-bedroom apartment costs over $2,200 a month,” he said, continuing in that vein for a while. “What if I told you that place was Ontario?”
But doing nothing on climate change would also cost money, the budget officer said in a CBC interview about the political spin around the policy. On Monday, Bethlenfalvy announced another six-month extension to the government’s gas tax cut, which will cost the treasury another $620 million, finance ministry staff said in a technical briefing for reporters.
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