Ontario budget 2019: Vic Fedeli unveils the Ford Tories’ first fiscal plan

Thestar.com
April 11, 2019
Robert Benzie

Ontario is turning over a new leaf -- or at least a fresh trillium logo -- with the first budget tabled by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government.

Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will release the fiscal blueprint Thursday and is expected to outline how the province will stanch the red ink.

Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, right, purchases a tie from Tomas Mihalik during a pre-budget photo opportunity in Toronto on April 9, 2019. Fedeli will present the provincial budget April 11.

“It will be a reasonable, pragmatic, sustainable path back to balance,” Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy, who helped craft the fiscal plan, said Wednesday.

“We are looking to cut the level of spending (of) the previous Liberal government that we inherited, which was unsustainable,” said Bethlenfalvy.

“I think we’re going to do it in a way that is modest and sustainable,” he said, declining to say whether the books would balanced before the 2022 election.

As first disclosed by the Star, a new $89,000 government logo will be unveiled to replace the controversial “three men in a hot tub” trillium introduced by former premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals in 2006 at a cost of $219,000.

While the Tories will not be reviving the classic T-shaped trillium logo dating back to 1964, another Beatles-era icon is being given new life.

The Star revealed Tuesday that “A Place To Grow” -- a line from the Expo 67 jingle “A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow (Ontari-ari-ari-o!)” -- will replace “Yours to Discover” on white and blue passenger licence plates.

“Open For Business,” will appear on white and black commercial plates.

Government and Consumer Services Minister Bill Walker said an undisclosed French-language plate will also be available for motorists.

“There will be a slogan in French and a slogan in English and I’m sure you’re going to like it,” said Walker, noting it was time for “a refresh” to “Yours to Discover,” which has been in use since 1982.

The Canadian Press reported Tuesday the budget will announce free dental care for low-income seniors, a Tory campaign pledge championed by previous PC leader Patrick Brown, now the Brampton mayor.

CBC Radio reported there will be a child-care rebate, also promised during last June’s election, that would allow families to get back up to 75 per cent back -- to a maximum of $6,500 -- on annual child-care costs of $9,000.

In the campaign the Tories said any type of paid care for kids up to age 15 while parents work or study would be eligible.

The Toronto Sun reported that American-style tailgating will be permitted at sports venues so fans can bring their own beer to pre-game parking lot parties.

A cornerstone of Thursday’s document is Ford’s transit expansion, including a $10.9 billion “Ontario Line” subway from Ontario Place on the waterfront to the Ontario Science Centre in Don Mills that is a reworked Downtown Relief Line.

The government also hopes to extend the Yonge subway north, estimated at $5.6 billion, build a $5.5 three-stop Scarborough subway extension, and lengthen the unfinished Eglinton Crosstown to Pearson Airport for $4.7 billion.

But overall funding for the ambitious scheme -- with a price tag of $28.5 billion, including planning costs -- remains uncertain.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath warned Ontarians should gird for deep cuts to health care and education.

“I’m bracing for a budget that’s really going to take people backwards in our province,” said Horwath.

“Families deserve something a lot better than a government that just takes things away,” she said.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said people should read the fine print in Thursday’s document because the Tories inflated the deficit to $13.5 billion through accounting changes.

By no longer counting about $11 billion of government money in co-sponsored Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union Pension Plan and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as assets on the books, the deficit has increased by about $5 billion.

“It’s going to create fiscal pressure. They’ve put themselves in a very tight fiscal box,” said Fraser, noting the Tories did that so they could blame the previous Liberal government for the state of the books.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the “distraction” of tailgating liberalization could be ominous.

“Whenever the premier is talking about booze you know something bad is going to happen,” said Schreiner.

“We can party and look at our new licence plates, I guess, and forget about how bad this budget is going to be,” he said.