{"id":562944,"date":"2026-03-26T21:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562944\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:58:10","slug":"ford-government-runs-deeper-deficit-punts-budget-balance-amid-pessimistic-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562944\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford government runs deeper deficit, punts budget balance\u00a0amid pessimistic outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid an active trade war with the United States and economic uncertainty on the horizon, the Ford government<\/a> is painting a pessimistic outlook of the province\u2019s economy\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as it increases Ontario\u2019s deficit by more than 75 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled the 2026 provincial budget at Queen\u2019s Park on Thursday, he warned that geopolitical change has \u201creached our shores,\u201d requiring the province to spill more red ink.<\/p>\n

Bethlenfalvy\u2019s budget shows\u00a0that\u00a0Ontario\u2019s deficit will grow to $13.8 billion in 2026-27, nearly doubling what the government projected in 2025.<\/p>\n

The province will also delay its plans to balance the budget by a year as officials with the Ministry of Finance conceded that Ontario\u2019s economic activity has slowed down in the government\u2019s eight years in office.<\/p>\n

Instead, the province will now run a $6.1-billion deficit in 2027-28\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a 31 per cent increase from its past projections. It is now planning to post a $600-million surplus in 2028-29.<\/p>\n

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Overall government spending is up about four per cent from $234.6 billion to $244.2 billion. The health sector will cost the government $101.2 billion this year, with education the next highest at $40.8 billion.<\/p>\n

The financial plan doesn\u2019t include any details of Premier Doug Ford\u2019s idea of building a convention centre in Lake Ontario or expanding Billy Bishop airport.<\/p>\n

His idea of tunnelling under Highway 401 is mentioned in the document, but without price details. Officials would only say work on\u00a0the $9.1-million study announced last year is underway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the growing debt and grim outlook, Bethlenfalvy appears to be diverting from other provinces and is offering tax cuts instead of increases.<\/p>\n

He has defended his deficit as \u201cone of the lowest rates in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opposition, however, said the Ford government has turned Ontario \u201cinto a have-not province\u201d through poor spending choices and high debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0[Progressive]\u00a0Conservatives love to pretend to us that they\u2019re prudent fiscal managers, but this budget is telling us something else,\u201d NDP MPP Jessica Bell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are on track to have a $500-billion deficit. That is very concerning. We would like to see this government really look at what they\u2019re spending the money on to see we\u2019re really getting bang for our buck.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tSmall businesses receive tax break\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

While the Ford government\u2019s budget last year\u00a0\u2014\u00a0hot on the heels of its \u201cProtect Ontario\u201d election campaign\u00a0\u2014\u00a0focused heavily on manufacturing and large-scale industries, its latest plan pivots slightly.<\/p>\n

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A small business tax break is being introduced to try to reduce the trickle-down effect of United States President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on main street businesses in Ontario cities.<\/p>\n

As part of its 2026 budget, the province is lowering the small businesses tax rate by 30 per cent\u00a0\u2014\u00a0from 3.2 per cent to 2.2 per cent. Officials estimate it will give business owners $5,000 in tax relief.<\/p>\n

The province said the three-year discount, which would cost the province $1.1 billion, would help 375,000 small businesses.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses had been critical of the government\u2019s $5-billion Protect Ontario Account for focusing on large companies with at least $2 million in annual revenue.<\/p>\n

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Alongside the small business tax cut, the province is refocusing that fund to zero in on future industries as opposed to protecting existing companies hit by the trade war.<\/p>\n

The $5 billion was set aside in 2025 to offer companies cash injections to stabilize businesses hit hardest by tariffs.<\/p>\n

The fund, however, failed to have the desired outcomes.<\/p>\n

For example, while tariff-battered Algoma Steel received $100 million from the government, the provincial cash still wasn\u2019t enough to prevent 1,000 employees from being laid off.<\/p>\n

Other than Algoma,\u00a0ministry\u00a0officials could not provide details on how many companies were helped, how much money they received and how many jobs were saved.<\/p>\n

The government will now redirect $4 billion of the remaining money in the fund into a new investment fund for \u201ceconomy-enabling investment opportunities\u201d in industries that the province wants a slice of.<\/p>\n

Industries include artificial intelligence, defence advanced manufacturing, life sciences, biotechnology\u00a0and the critical mineral sector.<\/p>\n

While the budget was light on details, the province said it would provide seed funding and\u00a0work with a \u201cgeneral partner\u201d to attract additional money from pension and private sector funds in an effort to \u201creduce exposure to external economic uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ontario Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman branded the plan a \u201cbudget of broken promises\u201d to voters.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re not protecting, they\u2019re pretending,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bowman said the government had had more than enough time to deliver on its promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2018, they promised a middle-income tax cut to families, to fix hallway health care, and create\u00a0300,00 manufacturing jobs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tax cut isn\u2019t in this budget, hallway\u00a0health care\u00a0is worse than ever, and there are 9,000 less manufacturing jobs in Ontario today. This is the eighth year in a row where the Conservatives have delivered a budget of broken promises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside increasing debt, the budget\u2019s economic indicators suggest\u00a0Bethlenfalvy\u00a0was not only managing expectations when he said there would be \u201ctougher times\u201d ahead.<\/p>\n

Ontario is now projecting\u00a0the\u00a0unemployment\u00a0rate\u00a0will increase to 7.4 per cent in 2026, dropping slightly to 6.9 per cent in 2027. It should fall again to 6.4 per cent in 2028.<\/p>\n

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Those figures are slightly higher than last year\u2019s projections, suggesting the government is concerned more people will either lose their jobs or have difficulty finding employment.<\/p>\n

If the projection comes to pass and 7.4 per cent of the population is unemployed this year, that would mean more than\u00a0half a million\u00a0people in the province without a job.<\/p>\n

Job creation numbers are also expected to decrease compared\u00a0with\u00a0previous budgets. In 2027 the province is expecting 58,000 new jobs to be created in Ontario, down from the previous projection of 74,000.<\/p>\n

The number of new homes set to be built in the province over the next few years has also cratered further.<\/p>\n

To deal with the potential effects of a slowing economy, the province is setting aside $3 billion in a reserve budget and a contingency fund to deal with unexpected costs.<\/p>\n

The budget also includes several other measures that the government pre-announced.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the one-year waiver of sales tax on all new homes, which essentially expands on a similar measure announced last year that only applied to first-time homebuyers.<\/p>\n

The province previously confirmed it will include a cap on ticket resale prices in the financial plan.\u00a0There\u2019s also $325 million for primary care in a budget that will be passed through legislation that also clamps down on transparency rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid an active trade war with the United States and economic uncertainty on the horizon, the Ford government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,8334,46,13403,44,217326,13404,714],"class_list":["post-562944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump-tariffs","tag-economy","tag-ford-government","tag-news","tag-ontario-budget","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}