2024 Budget: Building a Better Ontario

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

MISSISSAUGA—ERIN MILLS — MPP Sheref Sabawy was happy to attend the legislature today while Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy released the 2024 Budget: Building a Better Ontario.

Building a Better Ontario

Like the rest of the world, Ontario continues to face economic uncertainty due to high interest rates and global instability. These challenges are putting pressure on Ontario families and their finances, as well as the province’s finances. Despite these challenges, Ontario is continuing to deliver on its Plan to Build by investing in infrastructure to get more homes built faster and attracting better jobs with bigger paycheques, all while keeping costs down for families and businesses and retaining a path to balance.

Highlights of the Province’s significant actions include:

  • Helping to get more homes built by investing $1 billion in the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and quadrupling the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund to a total of $825 million to help municipalities repair and expand the critical infrastructure needed to reach their housing targets.
  • Connecting approximately 600,000 people to primary health care by investing an additional $546 million over three years.
  • Launching a new $200 million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund to strengthen communities across Ontario by building and upgrading sport, recreation and community facilities.
  • Investing $46 million over three years, including for the purchase of four police helicopters, to improve community safety by supporting increased patrols and faster response times to major incidents and serious crimes.
  • Keeping costs down for people and businesses by proposing to extend the temporary cuts to the gasoline tax rate by 5.7 cents per litre and the fuel (diesel) tax rate by 5.3 cents per litre until December 31, 2024. This would save Ontario households $320 on average since the cuts were first introduced in July 2022. This relief is especially important as the federal carbon tax is set to increase on April 1, 2024.
  • Supporting individuals facing unstable housing conditions and dealing with mental health and addictions challenges by investing an additional $152 million over three years toward various supportive housing initiatives designed to support vulnerable people.
  • Introducing legislation that would, if passed, require a referendum before any future government implements a provincial carbon pricing program.
  • Modernizing auto insurance to provide more affordable options, increased benefits, and fairer pricing based on territorial ratings.
  • Increasing housing supply by strengthening enforcement of Non-Resident Speculation Tax and allowing municipalities to impose a Vacant Home Tax.
  • Expanding eligibility for the Ontario Guaranteed Annual Income System program and the Ontario Electricity Support Program.

Supporting Peel & Mississauga

The 2024 Budget demonstrates how Ontario is continuing to deliver on its Plan to Build by investing in infrastructure to get more homes built faster, attracting better jobs with bigger paycheques, keeping costs down for families and businesses and retaining a path to balance.

The government’s significant actions in the region of Peel include:

  • Keeping costs down for GTA public transit riders through One Fare, saving transit riders an average of $1,600 per year.
  • Continuing work to expand or improve GO Transit, including:
    • Upgrading the Bramalea GO Station to provide better access to GO Transit and Brampton Transit services.
    • Proceeding with planning of two-way all-day GO service on the Milton Line.
  • Moving forward mass transit:
    • the Hazel McCallion (Hurontario) LRT, including a downtown loop in Mississauga’s Square One district.
    • the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension.
  • Expanding the network of Youth Wellness Hubs with a new hub in Brampton and investing an additional $8.3 million over three years to add five more Youth Wellness Hubs, bringing the total number to 32.
  • Investing $46 million over three years, including for the purchase of four police helicopters, to improve community safety in the Greater Toronto Area by supporting increased patrols and faster response times to major incidents and serious crimes.
  • Opening new long-term care homes as part of Ontario’s Accelerated Build Pilot Program, including Wellbrook East and Wellbrook West, two new state-of-the-art long-term care homes that opened in November 2023 with 632 new long-term care beds.
  • Building highways and improving road safety, including moving ahead with Highway 413 to better connect the corridor across Halton, Peel and York Regions.
  • Investing in health care, including the new Mississauga Hospital.

Additional Resources

Ontario’s 2024 Budget: Building A Better Ontario

Ontario Newsroom: Building A Better Ontario