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Ontario releases first quarter financial update

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Ontario’s finance minister released its first quarter financial update on Tuesday, saying the province’s budget is on track to meet its 2024 forecast.

Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy also says the province’s deficit remains the same at $9.8 billion which doesn’t appear to signal any confidence from the many Ontario cities, facing troubling rates of homelessness.

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“Ontario is in an enviable position and our finances are in excellent shape. Our projections for revenue, program spending, and cost of borrowing are all on track to meet our 2024 projections,” Minister Bethlenfalvy said.

Despite economic hardship from many Ontarians, the province’s finance minister
boasted about his government’s first quarter performance.

In his financial update, Bethlenfalvy credits high exports and more household spending for the province’s slight growth in real GDP. However, the Tories deficit of $9.8 billion remains the same, and they say fiscal projections are what they expect.

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Political analyst Keith Leslie spoke with CHCH News and said, “Where’s all the money going? I mean we’re seeing emergency rooms shuttering its doors, homeless encampments everywhere and the government comes out and says ‘our finances are great, we’re all on track.'”

While boasting about the province’s financial health, Bethlenfalvy was questioned about how the province intends to help alleviate Ontario cities from chronic issues like homelessness.

According to a report by the Trillium, roughly 3 of every 200 Ontarians are homeless and the province’s entire shelter system is nearly 100 per cent full.

“The province has to get to the core of this, they need to appoint one minister, one person tasked to deal with the homeless and mental health addiction crisis because these municipalities just don’t have the budgets to deal with this,” Leslie said.

Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) president Colin Best said, “We’re the ones who are subsidizing the province’s downgrades to the tune of $4 billion a year. All Ontario municipalities spend more than $60 billion a year on local services and facilities.”

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The poverty crisis is slated to be a hot topic when Ontario’s municipalities meet for their major annual conference next week in Ottawa.

“We had a prosperity review over 15 years ago with the province and we need to do another one to figure out a way to help Ontario municipalities because our property tax system was not intended to fund services like homelessness, mental health, addictions, housing, healthcare,” Best said.

Ontario’s finance minister says he intends to have those conversations next week.

“But, let me tell you this, the last five years I’ve increased the budget on the homeless prevention program by 40 per cent, a some $10 billion, that’s close to 10 per cent a year, is there more to do? Absolutely, but we’ll have those conversations and will do it together,” Bethlenfalvy said.

The AMO conference starts Sunday, Aug. 18. The association says the conference will see a record number of delegates. They say they’ve requested 900 private delegations with provincial ministers who are attending.

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