Ontario to Spend on Housing, Transit Even With Swelling Budget Deficit
- Canada’s economic powerhouse set release new fiscal plan
- Finance minister cites housing, transit, long-term care needs
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Ontario’s government will put infrastructure spending high on its list of priorities when it delivers a new budget Tuesday, even at the risk of joining Quebec and British Columbia with even larger deficits.
Canada’s most populous province has already postponed its target for balancing its budget, and a softening economy is likely to crimp the tax revenue available for roads, schools and hospitals. The provincial government will continue to earmark funding to address what Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy calls the “significant infrastructure deficit” inherited by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government, which took office in 2018.