New $2.1 Billion Investment in Children and a Return to Balanced Budgets  

Queen’s Park —The McGuinty government’s fourth Budget expands opportunity for all Ontarians by investing in our children, continuing to strengthen education, health care and infrastructure and balancing the budget, MPP for Eglinton-Lawrence Mike Colle announced today.

“Our government’s plan is working for Toronto,” said Colle. “By investing in Ontario’s children and families, our government is creating new economic strength and forming the foundation of a successful, caring and compassionate society.”

Families must be given the support they deserve to participate in Ontario’s prosperity. The first way the McGuinty government is helping families is through a $2.1 billion program that would help nearly 1.3 million children. The new Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) would be available to all children under the age of 18 in low-income families, and would help ease the transition to work for parents receiving social assistance.

In addition to the OCB, the McGuinty government’s investments proposed in this Budget to help children and families include:

• Increasing to Ontario Disability Support and Ontario Works benefits by two per cent
• Increasing the minimum wage to $10.25 an hour in 2010
• Enhancements to child care through an additional $25 million in 2007-08 and $50 million in ongoing support in 2008-09
• Launching new affordable housing initiatives
• Giving pensioners access to their money by allowing them to unlock 25 per cent of their locked-in funds and permitting pension income-splitting for senior couples
• Increasing benefits by 2.5 per cent each year for three years for 155,000 injured workers
• Making legal aid more accessible to the most vulnerable citizens in Ontario by investing an additional $51 million over the next three years starting in 2007-08

 The 2007 Budget, which contains no tax increases, projects a balanced budget for 2006-07, the second year in a row, eliminating the $5.5 billion deficit inherited in 2003-04.

Investments in Toronto proposed in the 2007 Budget include:

• An average 19 per cent reduction in business education taxes paid by businesses in Toronto as a result of our $540 million plan to cut high Business Education Tax rates
• $222.6 million from the public transit trust for transit infrastructure.
• $200 million towards a $1 billion project to modernize and expand bus, streetcar, and subway services.
• A share of the $127 million the government will immediately provide to municipalities for new affordable housing units, or to rehabilitate existing housing.
• $15 million to the University of Toronto, which is advancing research in structural genomics
• $12.5 million for the Toronto International Film Festival
• $5.5 million over three years for Luminato, the new Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity

The 2007 Budget includes proposals to enhance the fairness of Ontario’s property tax system.

It also announces $125 million in immediate environmental initiatives, including home energy audit grants and funding for the Trees Ontario Foundation, enough to plant more than one million trees. The government will also allocate more than $200 million over the next three years to fund further climate change initiatives.

The $125 million and the $200 million for further climate change initiatives come from Ontario’s $586 million share of a federal trust for clean air and climate change and build on existing and ongoing provincial initiatives.

The 2007 Budget also continues to make significant investments in health care, education, and infrastructure, including:

• $37.9 billion in health care spending in 2007-08, including $89 million this year, to help fulfill the government’s commitment to hire 8,000 nurses, and $135 million to further reduce wait times, including wait times for pediatric surgery
• $18.3 billion in grants to school boards in 2007-08, up almost $800 million from last year
• $4 billion in operating grants to colleges and universities in 2007-08, plus an additional $390 million to assist with such things as classroom space, higher enrolments and more training
• $5.9 billion in infrastructure investments in 2007-08 for transit, highways, electricity,  hospitals, schools, colleges, universities and rural infrastructure

 According to the Budget, 327,000 net new jobs have been created in Ontario since 2003. Over the 2007-09 period, 270,000 jobs are projected to be created.

“The McGuinty government’s plan is working for Ontarians. Jobs are up, the deficit is gone, class sizes are smaller, wait times are shorter for key health procedures, and postsecondary education is becoming more accessible and affordable,” Colle said. “We will continue to be focused and disciplined in our management of the province's finances, as we continue to expand opportunity through key investments in children and families, health care, education and infrastructure.”

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