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Building a Strong Ontario

Toronto – Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance, has released Ontario’s 2023 Budget: Building a Strong Ontario. It is 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 Minister 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.”

“Our government has a plan for building a strong province and a strong Niagara, and that plan is working,” said Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West.

“Ontario’s 2023 Budget outlines a responsible and targeted approach that supports job creators and working families today, while laying a firm foundation for the future.”

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 for Niagara include:

  • Expanding GO Rail service to Niagara by increasing current service levels, building four new and improved stations and supporting local transit oriented communities to build more attainable housing,
  • Twinning the Garden City Skyway over the Welland Canal in St. Catharines. This section of the Queen Elizabeth Way is a strategic trade and economic corridor that supports the provinces supply chain by linking the international border crossings at Niagara Falls and Fort Erie with the Greater Golden Horseshoe,
  • Supporting the redevelopment of West Lincoln Memorial Hospital to completion,
  • Supporting the new South Niagara Hospital to completion, and
  • Supporting local grape growers and winemakers by harmonizing wine taxes and setting a single twelve percent basic rate on wine and wine coolers. The harmonized rate is expected to result in an overall tax reduction of about $4 million per year.

Province-wide highlights include:

  • Launching the new Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, which would provide a ten percent 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.
  • 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.

The government is also providing an update on Ontario’s economic and fiscal outlook, with a plan that will balance the budget in 2024-25, three years earlier than forecast in the last Budget.