Ten highlights of the Ontario budget
Ontario's 2014 budget tabled by the new majority Liberal government includes an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and $1 billion to develop the mineral-rich Ring of Fire.

Thestar.com
July 14, 2015
By Queen's Park Bureau

The 2014 budget highlights:

• Ontario Retirement Pension Plan beginning in 2017 will force the two-thirds of Ontarians who don’t have workplace pension plans to contribute a portion of their paycheques, matched by employers.
• $900 million in new taxes, including increased taxes for those making more than $150,000 a year, and a tobacco tax hike.
• $130.4 billion in spending this year and a $12.5-billion deficit.
• $1 billion to develop the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario, which is reported to have the one of the largest chromite deposits in the world.
• Aviation fuel tax rises one cent a litre effective Sept. 1, 2014 and an additional one cent a litre on April 1, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
• A 10-year, $2.5 billion Jobs Prosperity Fund of handouts and incentives for business to invest in Ontario.
• $29-billion transportation fund for 10 years, with $15 billion for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and $14 billion for the rest of the province.
• $11 billion over 10 years for repairing and building elementary and secondary schools.
• Ontario Child Benefit for low income families increases to $1,310 from $1,210 a year.
• Debt retirement charge removed from hydro bills in 2016 for an average saving of $70 a year for ratepayers.