This week, Premier Ford released his Fall Economic Statement (FES). It’s a mini budget the Conservatives will champion as we head into an early election.
We will be debating the Fall Economic Statement in the coming weeks. Please send me your feedback at [email protected], and sign up to speak or submit written comments to the Fall Economic Statement (Bill 216) in committee.
Here’s what you need to know about the Fall Economic Statement.
- The Conservatives are not serious about fixing the housing crisis.
The Fall Economic Statement estimates that housing starts are well short of meeting Ontario’s target of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years to meet Ontario’s housing needs.
Despite the drop in housing starts, there’s no commitment to move forward with zoning reform to speed up approvals and encourage density, like allowing fourplexes as-of-right and condo buildings and apartments near transit stations and colleges and universities.
There’s no meaningful funding to build or maintain affordable housing, even though the government has built just 1,067 affordable homes in six years.
There’s no plan to end homelessness, even though we’re in the worst homelessness crisis in decades.
The government is allocating $50M more a year for two years to municipalities, however, this funding doesn’t offset the overall loss in revenue caused by the Conservatives stripping municipalities’ power to collect development fees earmarked for shelters and affordable housing.
- Expect a one-off $200 check in the mail.
The Conservatives will be sending a $200 check to 15 million Ontario residents.
A one-off $200 check isn’t going to make it easier for you to get a timely MRI or find an affordable home. It’s a one-off payment, not the sustained support people are looking for. And where’s the $3B investment in healthcare, education and housing?
- Ontario has become a have-not province.
We’re getting equalization payments from the Federal government, Ontario the economic powerhouse of the country. That’s not a good sign for our economy.
- Health care funding is going up by $1B, but don’t expect to see significant improvements in health care.
The $1B increase in healthcare funding is mostly earmarked for backpay and higher wages for health care workers who had their wages suppressed by the Conservatives during the pandemic by Bill 124. Bill 124 was struck down by the courts as being unconstitutional.
The government will allocate $18M to help pay the cost of tuition for medical students who choose a career in family medicine for five years in Ontario. It takes five to seven years to train a family doctor, so while this is a necessary step and an important one it’s not going to address our present acute primary care shortage. There are 2.3M people in Ontario who do not have a family doctor. That’s a shocking number.
We’re calling for Ontario to invest in administrative support for family doctors so they can reduce their hefty administrative burden (estimated at 19 hours a week) and be freed up to increase their patient roster and see more patients.
We’re also calling for investment in family health teams and nurse-led clinics, as they are effective ways to delivery comprehensive primary care.
Toronto Western Hospital identified a need for an additional family health team in the Chinatown and Kensington area back in 2017 and 2018, however, the proposal remains unfunded. It should be funded.
- Education funding remains stagnant.
Stagnant education funding means there’s no new money to fix and build schools. The massive repair backlog will remain massive.
Take Jesse Ketchum School on 61 Davenport Road, Toronto, as an example of how this funding shortfall is playing out. Government capital funding will be used to repair the school's boiler, but the school still has 47 outstanding urgent repairs, ranging from plumbing and HVAC issues to flood prevention and electrical work. Many older schools across Ontario are facing a similar repair backlog.
The funding freeze also means school classes will remain too large. In our riding, we have French immersion classes with 36 kids, which is just too high to achieve the best learning outcomes.
To improve our kids’ education, Ontario should invest in lowering class sizes and increasing the number of competent and caring teachers and staff in our schools. Our kids deserve better.
- Childcare issues remain
In October, the Ontario government made some improvements to the affordable childcare program by allowing childcare centers to access more funding to cover their costs.
The government’s belated move was in response to some childcare centres threatening to leave - and in some cases leaving - the affordable childcare program because they couldn’t cover their costs and they weren’t permitted to raise parent fees.
The challenge the sector faces now, however, is that childcare centres aren't funded to pay childcare workers a living wage, and as a result they’re having difficulty keeping staff and recruiting new staff to open new rooms to meet the enormous demand for affordable childcare, especially childcare that’s located in schools. We didn’t see any of these improvements in this Fall Economic Statement.
- The justice sector will see a funding cut of 9%.
The planned cut in justice funding means less court time and staff available to prosecute serious crimes, like sexual assault.
That means more cases will be thrown out because of delays.
It also means the backlog facing our tribunals – like the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) – will likely grow. There’s about 53,000 people waiting for a hearing at the LTB, an astronomical amount.