Ford government projected to add $141B to provincial debt
Ontario's provincial debt is set to skyrocket by over $140 billion in just six years, hitting a staggering $550 billion, according to the province’s independent financial watchdog.
Ontario's provincial debt is set to skyrocket by over $140 billion in just six years, hitting a staggering $550 billion, according to the province’s independent financial watchdog—a damning indictment of Premier Doug Ford’s fiscal management.
The Ontario Financial Accountability Office, an independent non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, released its summer Economic and Budget Outlook on Wednesday. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it paints a “grim picture for the future of Ontario’s finances under Ford.”
The outlook projects Ford’s government will continue to run multi-billion dollar deficits over the next six years. Ontario’s financial accountability office predicts annual provincial deficit spending will skyrocket from $1.3 billion in 2024–25 to $12.0 billion in 2025–26, nowhere near balanced, and remain at an annual deficit of $9.0 billion by 2029–30.
The FAO estimates the province's net debt will rise 34.7 per cent from $408 billion in 2023–24 to $549 billion in 2029–30. It estimates the added debt will hike interest charges by 6.1 per cent per year.
Noah Jarvis, Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, told True North in an interview that the over $100 billion debt hike in just five years will be unaffordable for taxpayers.
He said the increased deficit spending contradicts the premier’s claim his government would balance the budget by 2028.
“Taxpayers cannot afford to continue piling on billions of dollars of debt while debt interest charges continue to rise. Ontarians are already paying $1.35 billion every month on interest charges on our debt, and that figure is set to continue to rise by over 6 per cent every year,” Jarvis said. “What Ford needs to do is cut back on wasteful government spending in order to bring Ontario's finances back in line and to stop the endless piling on of provincial government debt.”
He added Ford has a long history of promising to cut taxes and be financially responsible with Ontarians’ tax dollars.
“In 2018, Ford promised to move away from the McGuinty-Wynne era of tax and spend politics,” Jarvis added. “However, since 2018, he has not lived up to these promises. Instead, Ford has ran a budget deficit in nearly every single budget that he has tabled as Premier, and quite frankly, he has not differentiated himself from his predecessors.”
The Fraser Institute released a study last August, which found that Ford’s government has spent more annually than any other provincial government since 1965, barring only Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government in 2010.
“Even in the past Ontario election, the Liberal Party promised to cut taxes for taxpayers, while the Ford PCs were silent on any tax cuts,” Jarvis said. “So I think it is quite concerning that we have politicians who are claiming to look out for the interests of taxpayers. But when they get into power, they are instead continuing with the status quo and running multi-billion dollar budget deficits.”
Jarvis said the so-called "PC government's" lack of fiscal responsibility could be an opportunity for the Ontario Liberal Party to "fill in the gaps" of taxpayer priorities.
“Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals had already promised to cut taxes for the middle class, to reduce taxes for minimum wage earners, and to cut taxes for businesses and also to scrap punitive charges on home building,” Jarvis said. “If the Ontario Liberals truly want to make themselves relevant again and hammer the Ford government on an issue that they are sorely lacking on, they can elect a leader who will promise to balance the budget and cut taxes for Ontarians and live up to the promises that Ford had once made when he was on the campaign trail in 2018.”
Crombie resigned as Ontario Liberal Party leader Tuesday after receiving 57 per cent support in a leadership review last weekend.
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