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Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tables the provincial budget, at Queen\u2019s Park, in Toronto, on May 15, 2025. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\nOntario\u2019s finance minister is set to deliver a key fiscal update today, pledging to keep the province on a path to balance despite the ongoing trade war with the U.S.<\/p>\n
Peter Bethlenfalvy made the pledge earlier this week to a business audience in Toronto as he laid the foundation for the fall economic statement. The minister said the document will show Ontario\u2019s books will be in the black by 2027-2028, which was projected in his spring budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The minister said he intends to hit that target even though the economy is feeling the effects of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, while people have been desensitized to debts and deficits, I think they still really matter,\u201d Bethlenfalvy said. <\/p>\n
\u201dAnd we have an obligation not just to think about, as (former prime minister) Brian Muloney said, the next 10 days, but think about the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario finished the last fiscal year with a deficit of just over a billion dollars, but is projecting a $14.5-billion shortfall in this year\u2019s budget. It\u2019s not clear if that target will have changed in the economic statement because of tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ontario on track to balance books in 2027-2028: minister<\/p>\n
But Bethlenfalvy said he remains committed to balancing by the 2027-2028 fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t underestimate our drive to provide a balanced fiscal plan for Ontarians, because it allows you then to do all these other things responsibly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tables the provincial budget, at Queen\u2019s Park, in Toronto, on May 15, 2025. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Bethlenfalvy has already announced one new measure that will add costs to the provincial treasury, agreeing to match a federal to cut HST on new home purchases for first-time homebuyers. The full scope of those costs will be detailed in the plan, the government has said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all meant to spur more home construction in the province at at time when the market has stalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But overall, Bethlenfalvy said Ontarians should expect the emphasis of the economic update to be on the province\u2019s tariff response, which includes a previously announced $5-billion fund to help businesses impacted by the fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in Canada, we have more than enough firepower to take matters into our own hands and grow our economy independently of us tariff pressures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ontario needs jobs plan, Stiles says<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she wants to see a plan to help the thousands of unemployed workers struggling because of the trade war. So far, the government\u2019s plans haven\u2019t been good enough, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking for a jobs plan from this government, and I think that’s what working people are going to be looking for as well,\u201d she said. \u201cA strategy to save jobs now, not pie-in-the-sky vanity projects that may never deliver jobs in the next few decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762434672_8_default.jpg\")
Leader of the Opposition Marit Stiles leaves the chamber after the Ford government tabled the provincial budget, at Queen\u2019s Park, in Toronto, on May 15, 2025. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Liberal finance critic Stephanie Bowman said the province needs to propose concrete measures to fight unemployment and create jobs.<\/p>\n
“We want to see jobs,” she said. “Young people, 17.8 per cent of them, are unemployed in this province. That’s the highest in Canada.” <\/p>\n
The CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce said the province\u2019s business community is closely watching the update. Daniel Tisch said he\u2019s hopeful that Ontario will create tax incentives to make it easier for businesses to invest in productivity and help small and medium-sized firms to go digital.<\/p>\n
But bread and butter spending on core provincial services is also key, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see investment in housing and health care, because those continue to be fundamental priorities for the business community,\u201d Tisch said. \u201cThat enables businesses to hire workers who have a place to live and have good health care in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said it hoped to see tax cuts for small businesses in the provincial plan. The group\u2019s director of provincial affairs for Ontario, Julie Kwiecinski, said moving the tax rate from the current 3.2 per cent to two per cent could help ease some of the effects of tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the government might say, ‘Well, that’s going to be a hit on our revenue,’\u201d she said. \u201cWe don’t see it that way. We see it as an investment in Ontario small businesses, because they’re going to turn around and pay their employees more and grow their operations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario\u2019s finance minister is set to deliver a key fiscal update today, pledging to keep the province on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":359838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-359837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115502926373557625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}