Ontario budget benefits small businesses, families in King-Vaughan: Lecce

Fedeli delivered the budget with the highest spending in provincial history -- $163.4 billion

Yorkregion.com
April 18, 2019
Sheila Wang

Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, joined by King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce and Thornhill MPP Gila Martow, addressed the local impact of the 2019 Ontario Budget on April 15 at the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce Post-Budget Breakfast event.

Residents and business owners packed the room at the Eagles Nest Golf Club in the morning of April 15 to hear what the recently elected Progressive Conservative government's first budget means to individuals, families and businesses in King Township and Vaughan.

“Vaughan and King Township families will benefit from a budget that will allow business to grow and create good jobs, while preserving our services and making investments in areas like all three local GO stations and the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital,” said Lecce, who was pleased with the fiscal blueprint tabled by Premier Doug Ford’s government.

On April 11, Fedeli delivered the budget with the highest spending in provincial history -- $163.4 billion, $4.9 billion more than the final Liberal fiscal blueprint announced last March.

“The 2019 Ontario budget is showing the world that our government is serious about fiscal sustainability, protecting front-line services, and making Ontario the best place to invest and create jobs,” Fedeli said.

The budget includes a new “childhood access and relief from expenses” (CARE) tax credit and formalizes the first stage of a $28.5-billion Greater Toronto Area transit expansion announced on April 10, yorkregion.com reported.

Lecce says the budget protects what matters most, and contains “absolutely no new tax increases” while providing $26 billion over six years in relief for individuals, families and businesses.

The budget also features a new Ontario Job Creation Investment Incentive to help businesses grow and create jobs, a “Digital First” strategy to modernize Service Ontario’s top 10 transactions and other government services, and a new auto insurance plan that the government says puts drivers first.

“This budget will help create the conditions for job growth so our small businesses can expand and compete, and so our young people can work and succeed in a competition marketplace,” Lecce said.

While overall government spending is up, 13 departments -- including the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of the Attorney General -- are having their budgets slashed.

The Tories, who revised last year’s Liberal $6.7-billion budget shortfall to $11.7 billion, are projecting deficits of $10.3 billion this fiscal year, $6.8 billion in 2020-21, $5.6 billion in 2021-22, and $3.5 billion in 2022-23, before projecting a surplus in 2023-24.