Ontario fiscal update focus on provincial infrastructure, jobs

Ontario was set to table a fiscal update Thursday expected to focus in part on infrastructure and protecting jobs, while this week’s federal budget has renewed calls for the province to boost post-secondary funding.

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Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said Wednesday that Ottawa’s financial plan “lacks some ambition,” particularly in infrastructure spending and insulating workers from the impacts of U.S. tariffs.

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“I’ve had people, workers, asking me, ‘What’s in the budget for Oshawa? What’s in it for Windsor, if you’re out of a job or being challenged in the auto sector?’” Bethlenfalvy said. “There isn’t much there.”

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That focus may have provided a glimpse of the themes of the fall economic statement, which often serves as a mini budget.

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Bethlenfalvy has already made a few pre-fall economic statement announcements, including an HST rebate for some first-time homebuyers and $1.1 billion for home care. As well, changes to election rules including scrapping fixed election dates and raising the political donation limit to $5,000 were set to be in the economic statement bill.

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Critics and the post-secondary sector are calling for the province to invest more in Ontario’s colleges and universities, especially in light of the federal government announcing in its budget it is cutting the number of student visas in half, to about 150,000.

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Ontario post-secondary institutions, colleges in particular, became heavily reliant on revenue from international student tuitions due to a tuition fee freeze in 2019 and low levels of public funding over many years.

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The federal cut to the number of international students is just the latest reduction in a series of them over the past few years and institutions have said that an additional $1.3 billion over three years from the province starting last year and $750 million to fund 20,000 post-secondary seats in STEM areas is not enough.

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Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn said Wednesday there was an ongoing funding formula review, but did not commit to any increases. The federal announcement was “another hit” to the sector, he said in question period.

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“We hear from everyone across the province that the federal government’s unilateral decisions when it comes to our international students has caused chaos right across the whole province and country,” Quinn said.