Ontario Tories cut taxes and oversight protections for environment, vulnerable children, and francophones

Thestar.com
November 16, 2018
Rob Ferguson

Premier Doug Ford is cutting taxes for low-income earners, lifting some rent controls, and slashing oversight protections for the environment, vulnerable children, and Ontario’s French-speaking minority.

Ford’s changes, which also include loosening restrictions on political fundraising, came in Thursday’s fall economic statement from the Progressive Conservatives with a smaller-than-expected $500 million drop in the $15 billion deficit and no timeline for balancing the provincial budget.

Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, right, reacts before tabling the government's Fall Economic Statement for 2018-2019 at Queen's Park on Nov. 15, 2018.

Finance Minister Vic Fedeli called the slight shrinkage in red ink “a pretty good start,” but warned further cuts loom in next spring’s budget.

“It’s going the right way and it will take time and it will require an extraordinary effort,” added Fedeli, blaming the previous Liberal government for “15 years of reckless spending and mismanagement.”

In the meantime, Ontarians will have more time to stock up on beer, wine and liquor as the government allows authorized retailers like the LCBO, The Beer Store, and some supermarkets to sell alcohol between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. seven days a week.

But critics denounced the elimination of the environmental commissioner, the child advocate, and the French-language services commissioner as independent officers of the legislature.

Instead, starting next May, the environmental watchdog function will be folded into the auditor general’s operation while the other two will be melded with the ombudsman’s office.

Fedeli’s economic update said that is “to reduce unnecessary cost while preserving critical functions,” but the government couldn’t yet say how many jobs will be cut.

“Mr. Ford thinks he can do anything, say anything and have no accountability whatsoever. That’s not what democracy is...you should be able to take criticism and make sure your government is being held to account,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“This is a government that doesn’t even have an environmental climate change in place” after scrapping the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade program, said Horwath.

Ending that environmental pact with Quebec and California cost the provincial treasury much of the $2.7 billion in lost revenue detailed in the economic statement.

The rest of the reduction in cash to provincial coffers will come from the scrapping of planned tax increases, such as a surtax of $200 for people earning over $92,000 a year, and the low-income tax credit.

Offset by $3.2 billion in reduced spending, that left the $500 million reduction in the projected deficit for the fiscal year ending next March 31.

Ford has promised to cut spending $6 billion a year by finding “efficiencies,” but has promised there will be no jobs cut.

While the government is stopping a planned Jan. 1 increase to the $14-an-hour minimum wage, which will save businesses $1.4 billion a year, Fedeli had some good news for Ontario’s lowest-income earners called a low-income individuals and families tax credit.

“It will benefit 1.1 million workers. The vast majority of low-income workers who earn $30,000 or less will pay no Ontario personal income tax at all. Zero.”

Renters moving into newly created housing units starting Friday, however, will no longer be covered by rent control laws, exposing them to potentially larger increases in housing costs in a move intended to spur construction. But existing rent controls will be preserved for all other tenants.

Fedeli signalled the Tories will eliminate the public $2.71 per-vote subsidies for political parties in time for the 2022 election, which will eventually save the treasury about $15 million a year.

Currently, the governing Tories receive $6.3 million while the NDP gets $5.2 million, the Liberals about $3 million and the Greens around $700,000.

“It shouldn’t be a burden on the taxpayer,” Fedeli said, noting politicians will once again be able to attend their own fundraisers once legislation is passed to align Ontario with federal election laws. Donation limits will rise to $1,600 from $1,200 within two years.

“There will still be no corporate donations, there will still be no union donations.”

That liberalizes campaign laws tightened by former premier Kathleen Wynne after a Star investigation.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said it paves the way for the return of “cash for access” fundraisers where donors pay to bend the ears of politicians.

“I’m deeply concerned they’re laying the groundwork to reversing the changes that banned corporate and union donations,” Schreiner told reporters, saying the existing rules provide a “level playing field.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser accused Fedeli of inflating the deficit figure, which includes $5.7 billion in Liberal campaign promises that are not being funded.

Fraser also blasted the Tories for their “attack on the francophone community.”

French Language Services Commissioner François Boileau said the end of his independent office, which advocates for the linguistic minority’s rights, “is a blow to the francophone community.”

“This is a major setback for the francophone community,” said Boileau.

In another disappointment for the province’s 622,000 francophones, Ford’s government will no longer build a long-promised French-language university.

However, the Tories couldn’t say how much that will save. That’s on top of previously killing planned satellite university campuses in Brampton, Markham, and Milton, which saved around $300 million.

Fedeli also promised legislation to “streamline” accountability and governance to spur the redevelopment of money-losing Ontario Place on Toronto’s waterfront.

But the NDP’s Horwath said: “my suspicion would be it makes it easier to sell off.”

The Tories’ $14.5 billion deficit does not account for $11 billion in joint-sponsored public-sector pension plans, which could be worth $5 billion on the annual bottom line. Previous Liberal and Tory governments counted those assets starting in 2002.

Fedeli claimed the Liberals “used off-book accounting to make the deficit appear lower than it actually was.”

The treasurer said the Tories agree with auditor general Bonnie Lysyk, who reversed her accounting for those pension assets after a dispute with the Liberals two years ago.