Today, Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy released the 2024 Budget: Building a Better Ontario. Like the rest of the world, Ontario continues to face economic uncertainty due to high interest rates and global instability.
These challenges are putting pressure on Ontario families and their finances, as well as on the province’s finances. Despite these challenges, Ontario is continuing to deliver on its Plan to Build by investing in infrastructure to get more homes built faster, attracting better jobs with bigger paycheques, keeping costs down for families and businesses, and retaining a path to balance.
“In the face of global economic uncertainty and high interest rates that continue to put pressure on Ontario families, our government is taking a responsible approach by investing to rebuild Ontario’s economy without raising taxes,” said Minister Bethlenfalvy. “As we invest in key public services and infrastructure, including new roads, highways and the largest public transit expansion in North America, we refuse to offload the costs onto hardworking Ontario families or municipalities at a time when they’re counting on us to keep costs down.”
Highlights of the Province’s actions include:
- Helping to get more homes built by investing $1 billion in the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and quadrupling the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund to a total of $825 million to help municipalities repair and expand the critical infrastructure needed to reach their housing targets.
- Connecting approximately 600,000 people to primary health care with a total additional investment of $546 million over three years.
- Launching a new $200 million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund to strengthen communities across Ontario by investing in new and upgraded sport, recreation and community facilities.
- Investing $46 million over three years, including for the purchase of four police helicopters, to improve community safety in the Greater Toronto Area by supporting increased patrols and faster response times to major incidents and serious crimes.
- Keeping costs down for people and businesses by proposing to extend the temporary cuts to the gasoline tax rate by 5.7 cents per litre and the fuel (diesel) tax rate by 5.3 cents per litre until December 31, 2024. This would save Ontario households $320 on average since the cuts were first introduced in July 2022. This relief is especially important as the federal carbon tax is set to increase on April 1, 2024.
- Helping workers and job seekers, including apprentices, get the skills they need to advance their careers with an additional $100 million investment in 2024–25 through the Skills Development Fund Training Stream.
- Supporting individuals facing unstable housing conditions and dealing with mental health and addictions challenges by investing an additional $152 million over three years towards various supportive housing initiatives designed to support vulnerable people.
“Our responsible approach allows us to support Ontario families, workers and municipalities while retaining a path to balance,” said Minister Bethlenfalvy. “We will keep investing prudently to help create stronger communities and better opportunities for future generations.”
Quick Facts
- For 2023–24, the government is projecting a deficit of $3.0 billion. As part of its path to balance, the government is projecting deficits of $9.8 billion in 2024–25 and $4.6 billion in 2025–26, before reaching a surplus of $0.5 billion in 2026–27.
- Ontario’s real GDP grew by an estimated 1.2 per cent in 2023 and is projected to increase by 0.3 per cent in 2024, 1.9 per cent in 2025, 2.2 per cent in 2026 and 2.2 per cent in 2027. For the purposes of prudent fiscal planning, these projections are slightly below the average of private-sector forecasts.
