What’s expected to be in the Ontario budget revealed Thursday
Posted April 30, 2014 4:24 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Ontario’s minority Liberal government will table its 2014 budget on Thursday. A series of official pre-budget announcements and some unofficial leaks have provided a good snapshot of what may be in Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s fiscal plan:
From government announcements:
— A new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which will require contributions from employers and workers.
— $29 billion over 10 years for transit and transportation infrastructure, including $15 billion for massive public transit expansion in Toronto-Hamilton area.
— Part of the money for transit to be raised by re-directing gas tax revenues and issuing green bonds.
— $2.5 billion over 10 years in corporate grants to secure new investments and jobs.
— $1 billion to develop the Ring of Fire mineral deposit in norther Ontario.
— $269 million over three years to raise wages of licensed child-care workers.
— $280 million over three years to increase pay for personal support workers in the home-care sector.
— $1 million to give grants to seniors to help them stay in their homes longer.
— $50 million a year to help would-be parents pay for in vitro fertilization treatments.
From documents obtained by The Canadian Press from a source outside the government:
— Increased taxes on high income earners and tobacco.
— Removal of some corporate tax credits to help pay for the transit plan.
— A four-cent-a-litre hike in the tax on aviation fuel, phased in over four years, to help fund transit and infrastructure projects.
