Ontario Targets The Poor & The Kids In New Budget
Posted March 22, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a rare time that the federal Conservatives and the provincial Liberals agree on anything.
But in the Ontario budget brought down at Queen’s Park on Thursday and the one delivered in Ottawa on Monday, there are a lot of similarities.
Both concentrate on helping poor families with kids.
Both offer a little something for everyone.
And both come before a definite election in Ontario and an expected one in Canada, forcing them to offer voters a relatively friendly plan that includes no new taxes.
One big difference – the provincial government has a big majority and didn’t feel the need to play to that other majorty, the middle class.
So what did Greg Sorbara do in his document?
As expected, the Finance Minister tried to help the most vulnerable in the province, with a five-year $2.1 billion Ontario Child Benefit for low income families.
It means that beginning in July, parents making $20,000 or less will get a cheque for $250 per child.
And that’s not all. That payout will continually increase until it reaches $1,110 in 2011.
Sorbara credits ‘prudent fiscal management’ with allowing the province to wrack up a $310 million surplus this year, with more predicted to at least 2010. And the Grits plan to spend that money on taking care of disadvantaged kids.
But the working poor weren’t ignored in this document either, As previously rumoured, the government will gradually up the minimum wage to $10.25 over the next three years.
And low income tenants will get $100 a month starting in 2008 to help them pay their rent.
If they want to someday upgrade their accommodations, another $392 million will go towards affordable housing.
Those with even less – like people on welfare or disability – will get a boost, too, with a two percent hike.
So what happens if you’re in the middle class? Not much.
The government is throwing you a bone, changing property tax assessments to once every four years and vowing any increases will be gradually phased in.
And for those looking to put their kids somewhere while they earn their paycheque, child care funding will increase to $25 million, with a promised doubling of that money by next year.
The Liberals, who originally campaigned on being the “Education Government”, will give school boards an extra $18.3 billion, to help them combat the problem of budgets that won’t balance.
And while the two traditional big issues – environment and health care – weren’t front and centre in the plan, they weren’t ignored either.
Sorbara confirms Queen’s Park will spend $125 million to help pay for things like energy audits to make your home more efficient.
Health care will get an extra $37.9 billion injection, bringing it to $91.2 billion. But whether that’s enough to reduce wait times is far from certain.
There were no new taxes in the budget, but at least one that wasn’t excised raised a few eyebrows.
The Grits decided to retain the much hated Health Care Tax, a levy they promised they wouldn’t introduce when they were first elected.
Sorbara remains unabashed by the omission. “Those who want to get rid of it mean they want to cut services in health care,” he argues.
The Liberals insist they didn’t approach their document with the fall election in mind.
“This budget is not about preparing or describing an election campaign or any particular thing,” Sorbara avers. “This is about what we need to accomplish before we go to the people October 10th.”
But it’s clear that with all those big surpluses, the Liberals are more than willing to go on a spending spree and they’ll still wind up with a balanced budget.
And there’s one other thing that came with this document that won’t affect your life, but is certainly worth noting.
The government claims they’ve finally paid off that debt they continually insisted they inherited from the Mike Harris-Ernie Eves years at Queen’s Park.
Which means they won’t have the old Tories to blame anymore.
Now they’ll just concentrate on the new ones.
Budget Highlights
-New Ontario Child Benefit for low income families worth up to 250 dollars per child this year and $1,100 by 2011.
-New housing allowance starting in 2008 worth up to $100 a month to help low income families pay their rent.
-Two per cent increase for Ontario’s disabled and welfare recipients, the first increase in four years.
-Additional $25 million for child care, doubling to $50 million in fiscal 2008.
-Minimum wage to increase 75 cents a year over next three years to $10.25 by 2010.
-Property tax reassessments to be conducted every four years starting in 2009, with any increases phased in over that period.
-Business Education Tax reduced by $540 million over seven years.
-Copies federal initiative to allow seniors to split some kinds of pension income for total tax savings of about $170 million this year.
-New life income fund to allow seniors access up to 25 per cent of their locked-in retirement funds.
-$125 million to help the environment through initiatives such as home energy audit rebates and planting more than one million trees.
-$18.3 billion in funding to school boards, up $781 million over 2006.
-Government will end 2006-07 with a $300 million surplus and projects continuing surpluses to 2010.
-Health care spending totals $37.9 billion in 2007-08 with total spending at $91.2 billion.
Homeowners promised fairer property tax assessments
New funds for low-income families
Opposition reaction to Liberal budget
Budget provides relief for post secondary schools, but not students
