Randall Denley: Ontario's 'historic' spending under Ford sure isn't producing results

National Post

4 hours ago

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The Ontario government's finances are a paradox. The PC government regularly boasts about 'historic' levels of spending, but faces constant complaints about underfunding, especially from the health-care, education and post-secondary sectors.
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What's the real picture?
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In fact, budget figures show that revenue and spending have increased dramatically since Premier Doug Ford was first elected. In 2019–20, his first full-year budget, total government revenue was $156.1 billion. This year, it's projected to be $219.9 billion, a 41 per cent increase. Spending has gone up by about the same percentage, from $164.8 billion in 2019–20 to a projected $232.5 billion this year.
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With such a large spending increase, it's hard to believe that anything could be underfunded, but discouragingly, that is the case.
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Ontario's per capita spending on health care is second lowest in the country. Per-student funding for Ontario universities is the lowest in Canada. The province does a bit better on public education, with the sixth highest per-student funding nationally.
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Those are disappointing numbers. One would expect more from the country's biggest province.
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It's not like the Ford government is restraining spending to balance the books. Far from it. That first Ford budget had a $9-billion deficit and the current one projects a deficit of $14.6 billion.
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A new report card on this year's budget gives Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy a grade of D- for his performance on the critical issues of debt, debt interest payments, spending increases and tax relief.
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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation report notes that Bethlenfalvy's latest budget increases debt by $22 billion, and says that by the end of the budget year, debt will have reached $461 billion. That's about $28,472 per person, the second highest in the country. Net interest payments will cost Ontarians just over $1,000 per person this year, the fourth highest in the country. Spending is up 7.9 per cent, third highest among provinces.
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The only moderately bright note in the taxpayers' report card was tax relief, where the Ford government finally made permanent a longstanding 5.7 cent per litre gas tax cut.
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Unfortunately, that cut is not typical of the Ford government's performance on taxes. Promises made in 2018 to cut corporate taxes and personal income taxes remain unfulfilled. Ontario's combined federal/provincial top marginal tax rate of 53.53 per cent is the third highest of any jurisdiction in Canada or the U.S.
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Here, at least, there is some reassuring news. The health, education and post-secondary sectors have all benefited substantially from the increased tax take. In 2019–20, health spending was $63.7 billion. In 2025–26, it is projected to be $91.1 billion. Comparing the same two time periods, education has gone from $30.2 billion to $41 billion and post-secondary spending will rise from $10.5 billion to $13 billion.