Here’s what I think you should know about the Ford government’s 10-year capital spending plan:
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New report signals Conservative cuts to affordable housing, school buildings
Government investment in public infrastructure is essential to improving our way of life and creating good jobs, especially during these tough economic times.
That’s why I was very interested to read the Financial Accountability Officer’s (FAO) report on the Ford government’s $223 billion 10-year capital spending plan.
What is the government spending money on? Where are they cutting back? If we were in government, would we definitely be making better choices - let's talk about it.
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Cuts to affordable housing
The need for new affordable housing has never been greater, but instead of investing, the Conservatives are slashing funding to affordable housing to about $1.9 billion over the next decade. That’s a whopping 60% cut.
Ontario needs to invest ten times this amount if we are going to build the thousands of affordable homes needed to end encampments, get people permanently housed, and kickstart our stagnant construction industry.
It is cheaper to do this upstream investment than it is to badly manage the chronic social downstream disease of homelessness, mental health and addiction. Food banks, shelters, jail, increased policing and security, and more emergency room visits all cost bucketloads of money and do very little to address the root cause problems.
There are smart and stupid ways for governments to respond to homelessness, and neither approach is cheap. Building affordable housing is the approach that works.
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School funding problems
Every parent has seen those big blue signs posted on the side of their kid’s school building, trumpeting the Conservative’s investment in school repairs. Those signs are all about making the government look good, not actually fixing the problem.
Here are the facts. The Conservatives are not allocating enough money to fix the schools we have and build the ones we need. In 2024, the FAO estimated it would cost $31.5 billion to bring all school buildings to a state of good repair and build new schools to meet student growth. This FAO report shows the Conservatives are allocating just $26.4 billion.
This means more Ontario children will learn in overcrowded classrooms. Children will see more pool closures, more portable classrooms, the lead will remain in school drinking water, there will be more broken pipes and flooding, more sweltering heat and freezing cold. We should be setting students up for learning success, not creating hardship.
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Hospital infrastructure investment
The Conservatives are looking at spending $54 billion on hospital expansion, which is significant.
This January, I toured the province as part of pre-budget consultations and I listened to hospital executives in Peterborough, Brockville, Kemptville, and Ottawa tell me their hospitals are too old and too small to manage their growing volume of patients.
New floors, bigger emergency rooms, and state of the art operating rooms need to be built and upgraded. New hospitals need to be built. The need is there.
Here’s two things I’m watching out for.
First, this investment in hospital infrastructure will only improve health care outcomes if the Conservatives invest in hospital operating budgets as well.
The Ford government has told hospitals to expect a 2% a year operating budget increase – which is far below inflation and population growth. The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions estimates hospitals will be forced to lay off 10,000 healthcare workers to balance their budgets.
An empty new building is not going to cure a cancer patient. Better and faster access to health care will require Ontario to recruit and keep more qualified and experienced nurses, doctors, and health care professionals.
Second, how are we building these hospitals, and who is building them?
Conservatives love exorbitantly expensive public-private partnerships, which means they give a company a boat load of extra money to take on the responsibility and risk of designing, building, financing, and maintaining the hospital. It is more cost-effective to use a traditional delivery model where the government designs the hospital and pays for a construction company to build the hospital.
In April last year, news broke that a major $140 million construction contract for the new Peter Gilligan Mississauga Hospital went to a U.S. company, even though there were qualified, reputable Ontario companies that bid on the job.
This isn’t an anomaly. The Conservative government has Buy Ontario, Build Ontario procurement rules that are so weak that U.S. corporate giants like Walmart are eligible to bid on Ontario's government contracts.
To maximize our infrastructure investments, Ontario must bring in stronger Buy Ontario, Build Ontario procurement rules so more contracts go to local companies that can hire more Ontario workers.
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Infrastructure spending is core to any sensible economic plan, and governments have a duty to invest wisely and well.
Jessica Bell
MPP, University-Rosedale