Ontario’s 2023 Fall Economic Statement Released on Thursday

Brockville — Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy released the 2023 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Building a Strong Ontario Together. This update continues the government’s responsible, targeted approach, providing the flexibility needed to help address ongoing economic uncertainty and build critical infrastructure in growing communities while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations.

Ontario is seeing significant growth, with nearly 500,000 more people coming to the province last year and more than 170,000 net new jobs created in the first nine months of 2023 alone.

“I’m proud that our government is making investments to upgrade and replace critical infrastructure more quickly,” said Steve Clark, MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. “At the same time, today’s Fall Economic Statement continues our work to make life more affordable, create new economic opportunities and improve health care for residents of Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.”

With Building a Strong Ontario Together, the government is introducing new tools to help build critical infrastructure faster and smarter, continuing to attract investments and more jobs, and providing better services for people.

Highlights include:

• Launching the Ontario Infrastructure Bank, a new arms-length, board-governed agency to enable public-sector pension plans and other trusted institutional investors to participate in large-scale infrastructure projects across the province. At the outset, projects will be focused on long-term care homes, affordable housing and infrastructure in the municipal, community, energy and transportation sectors.
• Helping to build more rental homes by taking steps to remove the full eight percent provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on qualifying new purpose-built rental housing. This will
  encourage builders to build more rental units, and this is another step in the government’s plan to help people in Ontario find and afford a place to live.
• Providing an additional $100 million to the Invest Ontario Fund, for a total of $500 million, which will enable Invest Ontario, the government’s investment attraction agency, to help attract more
  leading companies to the province, further support businesses already here and create good-paying jobs in communities across the province.
• Proposing to enhance the Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit eligibility to help stimulate critical mineral exploration and improve access to capital for small exploration companies. If approved, the change would start with the 2023 tax year and add $12 million per
  year in tax credit support to Ontario’s critical minerals mining industry.
• Extending the current gas and fuel tax rate cuts through to June 30, 2024—a proposed change that, along with the rate cuts already in place, would save households $260 on average since the cuts were first implemented in July 2022.
• Expanding access to breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49, by allowing them to self-refer for a mammogram through the Ontario Breast Screening Program. Beginning in fall 2024, these measures will increase access for more than 305,000 additional individuals.

“The road ahead is not going to be easy, but we have seen what the people of Ontario can accomplish together”, said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Ontario’s Minister of Finance. “Together, we can face the uncertainty of today and build a strong Ontario”.

QUICK FACTS:

• The government is now projecting a $5.6 billion deficit in 2023–24 based on updated economic and revenue information and higher contingencies to mitigate near-term risks.
• Over the medium term, the government is taking a responsible approach to eliminating Ontario’s deficit by 2025–26. A deficit of $5.3 billion is forecast in 2024–25, followed by a surplus of $0.5 billion in 2025–26.