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Province Releases 2024 Budget: Building a Better Ontario

Beamsville – Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West, announced today that Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance, has 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 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 and attracting better jobs with bigger paycheques, all while keeping costs down for families and businesses and retaining a path to balance.

“Building a Better Ontario continues our commitment to build a strong province and a strong Niagara.” said MPP Oosterhoff.

“Ontario’s 2024 Budget outlines a responsible and targeted approach to rebuilding the provincial economy, while continuing to invest in housing enabling infrastructure, highways, transit and health care, without raising costs on families, businesses and municipalities.”

Highlights of the province’s significant 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 by investing an additional $546 million over three years.
  • Launching a new $200 million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund to strengthen communities across Ontario by building and upgrading sport, recreation and community facilities.
  • Investing $46 million over three years, including for the purchase of four police helicopters, to improve community safety 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.
  • Supporting individuals facing unstable housing conditions and dealing with mental health and addictions challenges by investing an additional $152 million over three years toward various supportive housing initiatives designed to support vulnerable people.

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.
  • Providing $2.3 Million in funding for the City of St. Catharines and $1.7 Million for the City of Welland through the Building Faster Fund.
  • Supporting local grape growers and winemakers by eliminating the 6.1 per cent on‐site wine basic tax, strengthening rural economic development across the region.

“This is a historic day,” said Richard Linley, President of Ontario Craft Wineries.

“The proposed elimination of the 6.1 percent basic tax is a vote for Ontario jobs, Ontario small businesses, Ontario family farms and agri-tourism across our diverse wine regions. Ontario’s wineries, grape growers and a host of other stakeholders across our value chain will benefit from this change. Thank you to the Ontario government for recognizing the importance of not only preparing, but leveling the playing field for our agricultural businesses as we transition to a more open alcohol marketplace.”