Reference to the CFA’s Advocacy Update from August 11, 2022

By Scott Munnoch, Temple Scott Associates

On Tuesday, Ontario’s Speech from the Throne, laying Premier Doug Ford’s agenda for the upcoming term which will focus on the Budget originally introduced prior to the election on April 28th. The new Budget Bill was introduced by Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy immediately following the reading of the Throne Speech.

The Speech from the Throne recognizes the difficult times facing governments with ongoing pandemic concerns, high inflation, high fuels costs, labour shortages and supply chain challenges. These challenges cannot be ignored. The Speech identified the Ontario government as being in a good position to meet these challenges.

The Speech reinforced previous announcements of less taxes and regulation to make Ontario competitive and emphasized the government’s theme that less government drives economic growth. On the most significant issue, there were no specific references to how health care challenges would be addressed, only that more can still be done by working with health care partners.

Ontario’s Policy Priorities

With the introduction of the budget immediately following the Throne Speech, the government is signaling its intent to continue along the path announced in the original budget in April of 2022. The budget is focused on five main themes:

• rebuilding Ontario’s economy;
• working for workers;
• building highways and key infrastructure;
• keeping costs down; and
• a plan to stay open.

The Throne Speech highlighted many specific promises, previously announced, with an emphasis on health care.

• Build 30,000 new long-term care beds by 2028, with 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds now in development.
• Investing nearly $5 billion over four years to hire the more than 27,000 new staff that will be needed to provide long-term care home residents an average of four hours of direct care per day by 2025.
• Call for the federal government to increase its share of provincial-territorial health-care spending from 22 per cent to 35 per cent through the Canada Health Transfer.
• Nearly 370,000 jobs currently unfilled, Ontario is facing a generational labour shortage with the lowest rate of unemployment since 1989.
• Ontario has the tools to manage the virus and live with current variants for the long term, without returning to lockdowns.
• Investing $1 billion more to expand home and community care.
• Make Ontario the leading electric vehicle production capital of North America. “From mining to manufacturing” Ontario will offer the full range of processes designed to build the EV vehicles of the future.
• Ontario has reduced the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually.
• Government is also breaking down barriers that prevent out-of-province workers and newcomers from finding good jobs in the trades.
• Enhanced authorities for the Mayors of Toronto and Ottawa. Strong-mayor systems will empower municipal leaders to work more effectively with the province to reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing the supply of housing.
• Increases Ontario’s minimum wage to $15.50 per hour on October 1, 2022.

What’s Next: A Rare Summer Sitting

MPP’s have been told to expect a five-week session which would mean sitting through the Labour Day weekend until September 8th. With a large majority, the government should be able to meet this goal. The House will then adjourn for at least a week before returning on regular business. It remains to be seen how much other business will be introduced and what bills the government will introduce this summer. More than likely, the focus will remain on the budget with a resumption of regular business in September.

Click here for more information and analysis and opposition reaction.

DONATE TO THE CFA’S ADVOCACY EFFORTS!