The Ontario government's strategy to eliminate the projected $8.5 billion deficit has largely hinged on hoping revenues will grow robustly and eventually catch up to spending increases. This is a risky strategy.
ontario budget
November 25, 2015
10:17AM
November 18, 2015
9:30AM
The Ontario government has pledged to eliminate its budget deficit by 2017/18. However, the government’s recent record on fiscal issues casts doubt on whether it will meet this target.
November 13, 2015
2:35PM
The Ontario government has dug itself deep into debt and continues to spend more than the revenue it brings in each year.
July 18, 2015
9:00AM
Last week, Standard and Poor’s announced a downgrade to Ontario’s long-term credit rating, pointing to the province’s “very weak budgetary performance.”
April 23, 2015
6:00AM
Ontario’s 2015 budget, like those of years past, needed a concrete plan to get government finances on a sound footing. Yet again, the budget failed to deliver.
January 25, 2015
9:00AM
How governments manage their finances matters a great deal. Spend and borrow too much and the result is a spiral of increasing deficits that create ever higher debt. Then, ever-more tax dollars end up spent on debt interest—not on education, health care, administering provincial courts, or other areas in which provincial governments are involved.
November 18, 2014
10:00AM
There was an aura of complacency in Queen’s Park as the Ontario government released its update on the state of provincial finances.
July 21, 2014
6:00AM
We’ve seen this script before. Higher spending. Tax increases. Persistent deficits. Growing debt. Warnings from credit rating agencies. A government unwilling to make the tough choices to turn things around.
May 27, 2014
2:00AM
A new report on provincial debts and deficits by Moody's, the international credit rating agency, is another piercing reminder of Ontario's serious fiscal challenges.
November 9, 2013
2:00AM
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa called his updated financial plan a new direction but in truth it had a nostalgic feel. With his government facing considerable fiscal challenges including an $11.7 billion deficit and growing debt, Ontarians desperately needed a new direction. What they actually got was more of the same: increased spending and a government reluctant to deal with core problems.