The 2022 post-election budget document is unchanged. However,
- the re-announced budget measures include a 5% increase and indexing to inflation of ODSP, beginning in September
- a two-year $225 million direct payment to parents to support their children’s learning loss.
- The government’s spending plan is short billions to keep up with rising inflation.
Ontario Disability Support Program
What’s being announced:
- An increase in income support of 5% beginning in September 2022, an increase of $58 for an individual receiving ODSP (from $1,169 to $1,227). Future ODSP increases will be tied to inflation
- The government will also increase the maximum monthly amount for the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities Program by 5%.
What’s missing:
- A livable income for those living on ODSP
- No increases for those on Ontario Works.
Education
What’s being announced:
- An additional $225 million for direct payments to parents to help with the extra support their kids need to catch up.
What’s missing:
- Details of what this plan will look like for parents
Affordability:
What’s being announced:
- Increasing the income threshold for the LIFT Credit, from $38,500 to $50,000 for individuals, and $68,500 to $82,500 for families, saving 1.1 million people an average of $300 more
- Cost: $400 million in 2022-23, $320 million in 2023-24 and 2024-25
- Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit, 25% of claimable medical expenses up to $6,000, maximum credit of $1,500 to the individual receiving care.
- The amount claimed will be reduced by 5% for family net income over $35,000 and fully phased out by $65,000
- Cost: $110 million, to support 200,000 senior families
- “Lowering” auto insurance rates by creating more choice, cracking down on fraud, and enhancing fairness
What’s missing:
- Their 2018 promised 20% tax cut to the second-income tax bracket, which would cost $2.26 billion annually.
Health:
What’s being announced:
- Focus on new healthcare worker training and retention incentive for nurses ($764 million) for up to $5000 per nurse (over two years). $2500 extra per year over two years amounts to approx. $1.20/hour wage increase (40hr/week). $42.5 million over two years
- Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level: $15 million over three years
- Planning to bring together an advisory table to explore improvements to access to take‐home cancer drugs.
What’s missing:
- Health Human Resources Supports - Northern healthcare, more nurses, PSWs, Bill 124
- Missing recognition of internationally trained nurses–other international training to be recognized
- No universal mental healthcare–focus only on frontline workers
- Opioid Crisis supports
- Peel Memorial, turn the urgent care centre into a 24/7 inpatient care hospital. Still no commitment to an emergency department.
- Nothing new on pharmacare
Long-Term Care:
What’s being announced:
- Personal income tax credit for home care medical expenses for low- to moderate-income senior families of about $550 on average.
- Ontario Seniors’ Home Safety Tax Credit of $2500 a year of up to $10,000 in expenses for handrails, stair lifts, and home modifications for seniors homes. Personal income tax credit.
- Investments in increasing number of long-term care beds–list of capital projects and subsidies to private care providers with helping with construction costs
- Up to an additional $1 billion over the next three years to expand home care
- $100 million in additional funding over the next three years to expand community care programs such as adult day programs, meal services, transportation, assisted living services and caregiver supports
What’s missing:
- Nothing in terms of increased operational funding for LTC’s–very focused on capital spending and presentation in growth of new hospital beds.
- No new oversight of private service providers, and instead increased subsidies for private providers through capital projects.
Education:
What’s being announced:
- Investing $21 billion, including about $14 billion in capital grants over the next 10 years, to support the renewal and expansion of school infrastructure and child care projects
- Investing $600 million through the Learning Recovery Action Plan to help students recover from the disruptions of the COVID‐19 pandemic this year and into the next school year. This includes $175 million to expand access to free publicly funded tutoring in small groups after school, during school, on weekends and over the summer
What’s missing:
- Nothing about smaller class sizes
- No change from their current plan to tackle school repair backlog - which is inadequate
- Nothing to upgrade ventilation in schools - ventilation not mentioned in document
- No hiring numbers for education workers
Postsecondary Education:
What’s being announced:
- $61 million over three years for the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant to provide financial supports to postsecondary students who enrol in priority programs such as Health Human Resources and continue to work in underserved communities in the region where they studied after graduation
- Almost $6 billion in the Postsecondary Education sector, including over $2 billion in capital grants over the next 10 years, to help colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes modernize classrooms by upgrading technology, carrying out critical repairs and improving environmental sustainability.
What’s been cut:
- PSE will be cut 200 million from FES and Budget 2021 - total expense for 22-23 expected to be 10.8 billion, compared to projection of 11 billion in 2021 FES.
What’s missing:
- Their one year freeze on tuition doesn’t compare to our platform’s commitment to increase OSAP funding, convert loans to grants and wipe out student loan interest.
- PSE institutions need more funding - but the government is cutting $200 million (compared to their projections from 2021)
Jobs and Business Supports:
What’s being announced:
- Entrepreneurship Council and Entrepreneurship Strategy, recruiting 100 international entrepreneurs outside of the GTA through OINP.
- Venture Ontario, a startup and growth capital fund, renaming of Ontario Capital Growth Corporation
- Supporting digital literacy and technology adoption through the new Digitization Competence Centre, $10 million over 2022-23 and 2023-24.
- $2 million to Futurpreneur in 2022-23
- $40 million to Digital Main Street in 2022-23 and 2023-24
- Vague commitment to supporting BIAs
- Critical technology initiative, $107 million
- Extending the Regional Opportunities Investment Tax Credit to the end of 2023, supports corporations that build, renovate, or purchase eligible commercial or industrial buildings in qualifying areas of Ontario.
- Investing an additional $6.9 million to enhance the Investing in Women’s Futures program, employment training opportunities and wrap-around supports for women facing challenges including abuse, isolation, and mental health issues.
What’s been cut:
- Overall funding in economic development will be cut by for $149 million
What’s missing:
- No mention of paid sick days
- No mention of portable benefits
- No additional support for small business beyond some digitization initiatives.
Transit and Infrastructure:
What’s being announced:
- $25.1 billion over 10 years for highways, including previously announced projects like Highway 413, Bradford Bypass, Highway 401 widening (through Eastern Ontario), Highway 7, Highway 6, the QEW Garden City Skyway
- Unspecified funding for the Timmins Connecting Link.
- $61.6 billion over 10 years for public transit, including previously announced expanded GO service to London and Bowmanville.
- Re-announces funding for advance planning on the Eglinton West LRT extension to Pearson as well as the Sheppard subway extension to Don Mills,
- Re-announces temporary 5.7 cents/L gas tax cut, and elimination of licence plate renewal fees
- Re-announces $1 billion for all-season roads to Ring of Fire — a commitment that was first made by the Liberals
What’s missing:
- No evidence of progress on the GO extension to Bowmanville, increased GO rail service to Niagara, or frequent, all-day two-way GO rail to Kitchener
- No clear timelines for restoring northern passenger rail
- No mention of restoring the downtown Mississauga loop to the Hurontario LRT, despite Doug Ford’s February 2022 promise to do this “eventually”
- No mention of extending the Hurontario LRT to downtown Brampton
- No mention of the Eglinton East LRT
Energy and Environment:
What’s being announced:
- No new energy announcements
- Promises a new provincial park
- What’s been cut (if anything):
- Slight $50 million reduction in budget for electricity price mitigation programs
What’s missing:
- No conservation or energy efficient retrofit program
- No new climate change initiatives
- No funding or mention of the Ontario Carbon Trust, the centrepiece of the Ford government’s 2018 “Made in Ontario Environment Plan”
Municipal Affairs and Housing:
What’s being announced:
- A working group to explore municipal vacant home taxes. No details
- What’s been cut (if anything):
- $246 million cut to the ministry budget, as compared to interim 2021-22, including a $71 million cut to housing service managers.
- Slight cut to the Municipal Partnership Fund of $100,000,
What’s missing:
- No new funding for building more social housing. Instead, social housing funding is going down
- No increase to the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund. Instead, a slight decrease of $100,000
Agriculture:
What’s being announced:
- Several re-announcements of small programs, including $10 million for a a Food Security and Supply Chain Fund, $10 million for an Enhanced Agri‐Food Workplace Protection Program, $5 million in emergency support for processors, and $2.6 million to support international ag workers
What’s missing:
- No increase to the Risk Management Program cap. PCs promised pre-election to increase cap by $50 million annually starting in Year Three. They did increase it in late 2020-21, but did not increase it again in 2021-22 and do not seem to have increased it in 2022-23
Anti-Racism:
What’s being announced:
- No announcements
What’s missing:
- ‘anti-racism’, or ‘anti-Black, ‘anti-Asian’, ‘anti-Semitism’, and so on, does not appear to be referenced in the Budget document
Other areas:
- COVID-19 Recovery/Resiliency Plans beyond health care supports
- $597 million to help students recover from the disruptions of COVID‐19 through supports for learning recovery, such as tutoring and additional staff.
- $505 million to support municipal transit systems as they recover from the COVID‐19 pandemic.
- 200 million for Ontario Staycation Tax Credit
- 205 million to extend the Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit in 2022
- 52 million to support Legal Aid Ontario as a result of lower revenues received from the Law Foundation of Ontario.
- $28 million in support of the Agri‐Food sector
- $22 million to provide personal protective equipment and infection prevention and control measures in congregate care and community settings.
- $128 million to support municipal service managers and Indigenous program partners to deliver critical services through the Social Services Relief Fund.
Child care:
- Over and above the federal child care announcement, Ontario is investing an additional $395 million to cover the costs of inflation over 5 years.
- Missing our plan to boost child care wages for RECEs to $25 and $20 for all other program staff, still only building 86,000 child care spaces (only 50,000 actually new spaces) - not nearly enough to keep up with the anticipated increase in demand.
Indigenous Affairs:
What’s being announced:
- $25M for Indigenous communities, specifically the Indigenous Economic Development Fund over 3-years
Ring of Fire:
What’s being announced:
- Nothing new: $1B for the “legacy road into the Ring of Fire” government
- Re-announcing the $2 million in 2022–23, $3 million in 2023–24 to create the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund announced in March
Ontario Autism Program:
- Autism, specifically, does not appear to be referenced in the Budget