| Message from Stephanie |
| It has been a busy time since our last newsletter, so I am pleased to send you this update focused on the 2024-25 budget. This budget is unsettling because it fails to address the many crises discussed during three months of pre-budget consultation meetings. It paints a troubling fiscal position for Ontario with high debt, high deficits and record spending on programs while providing fewer services; never has a government spent so much to deliver so little. On other important matters, my caucus collogues have put forward a series of bills on economic and social issues that would work well to improve and address the holes created or ignored by this government. These include a small business tax cut, tax credits for parents to help pay for extracurricular activities, allowing more gentle housing options like four-plexes, improvements to the tribunal system like the landlord-tenant board and improvements to how we construct transit. These are all practical solutions the government could have implemented in their most recent budget, but did not. As your representative at Queen’s Park, I am committed not only to holding the Government to account for its mistakes but also to proposing solutions. This newsletter provides: -An analysis of the budget, how it affects you, and some of the proposed solutions I am advocating for at Queen’s Park; -My response to the Financial Accountability Office report on Ontario’s fiscal situation ; -Updates on my debates and questions about how the Government is spending our money; and Details about my private member bill to cut small business taxes. I will send out a separate email soon with a community update, including an update on my private member’s bill which I am drafting related to tenant issues. As always, please contact me with any questions or comments that you may have. My team and I are committed to listening to your concerns and feedback. All the best, Stephanie Bowman |
| Ontario Budget 2024 – Analysis |
| Budget Update: The 2024-25 budget put forward by the Government at the end of March was very unsettling. It paints a picture of misdirected spending, declining revenue, high debt and near zero growth. Quite contrary to the picture painted by the recent government ads – which are said to have cost taxpayers at least $8 million. With $214 billion in spending, it is the largest budget in Ontario history; yet never has a government spent so much to deliver so little. Key Budget Insights: Economic Growth: Projected growth has been drastically slowed, from 1.3% to a mere 0.3%. This slowdown translates to an $8.5 billion reduction in potential GDP growth, edging the province dangerously close to a recession, and reducing available revenue for the government to provide services. Public Debt: Since the current government assumed office, public debt has increased by $93 billion, with an additional $60 billion expected over the next two years. Key debt metrics, watched closely by bond rating agencies, are approaching critical limits, which could lead to downgrades in our provincial credit rating, causing higher interest expenses and further financial strain. Budget Cuts: Despite record spending, essential programs are not being prioritized sufficiently to provide services that Ontarians need. Leaders in healthcare, education, and other critical sectors are describing the painful impacts of this government’s spending cuts. |
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| The Cause: Privatization: The government, and especially the Premier, do not value our public services. The Premier has said “the worst place you can give your money is to the government”. I certainly agree that HIS government is the worst place you can give your money! This government seems determined to provide as many public tax dollars as possible to private companies which offer services at a higher cost. For example, in 2023-24, the government spent $1 billion of our healthcare budget on private nursing and staffing agencies. With that same amount of money, they could have hired three times as many nurses in our public system, and helped prevent ER closures, surgery backlogs and undue strain on our healthcare workers who work so hard to provide good care to their patients. Insider Friends: Much of the money directed to privatization of our public services is going to private companies and insider friends of this government. Whether it is the closing of independent Service Ontario small business operators or private staffing agencies, the government is working hard, not for the people of Ontario, but to make their rich insider friends even richer. The government attempted to do this first with the $8.3 billion Greenbelt giveaway, for which they are now under RCMP criminal investigation. However, that is not the only project. There are still lots of questions about who will really benefit from the moving of the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place, the proposed redevelopment of Ontario Place, and the proposed highway 413. The province’s strategy seems focused on capital-intensive projects like highways that may benefit their friends while compromising the financial stability required to manage essential public services effectively. The result is a paradox where the largest budget in Ontario’s history will fail to deliver on much-needed public service improvements. |
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| The Impact on You: Budget cuts across healthcare, education, post-secondary education, and justice ministries mean that essential services will continue to deteriorate. For instance, the healthcare sector has resorted to expensive private nursing agencies rather than directly hiring their own nurses. Backlogs at the Landlord & Tenant Board are four times worse than they were when this government took office. Students in our public system are not getting the supports they need to recover from the learning lost during the pandemic. Additionally, the heightened level of mental health strain in the system, coupled with fewer support staff, is affecting the ability of our educators and staff to support our kids. And with minimal economic growth and increasing debt, Ontario’s economic resilience is in jeopardy. The government’s current fiscal strategies may lead to long-term challenges that will impact all residents as more tax dollars go toward servicing the debt, leaving fewer dollars available for public services. |
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| What I am advocating for: Reduce our debt load by canceling projects that deliver minimal to no benefit to the people of Ontario so that we can properly fund our public services. This includes stopping Highway 413 and not using public money to build a parking lot for a foreign-owned spa at Ontario Place. -Adequately fund our public services so that they can deliver the services we need without resorting to paying private operators who have to deliver a return to their shareholders. As noted above, hospitals are paying three times as much to staffing agencies to hire back the same nurses they lost as a result of the governments damaging Bill 124. This means we could have had more of those same nurses working in our public system delivering services instead of having to cut surgeries and ER department hours. Likewise, giving families $100/child for private tutoring cost the taxpayers $350 million. This money would have gone much further if we had used it to pay much needed support workers and educators. -Invest in sectors of the economy that will provide significant growth. The government is spending $3 billion to set up its new infrastructure bank to finance sectors that are already able to access capital, like long-term care homes. This money would be better spent investing in post-secondary education, a real driver of economic growth, which has faced significant cuts under this government; and in supporting high growth emerging industries, like green technology, financial technology and artificial intelligence. -Invest in small businesses which provide two out of three private sector jobs in Ontario by supporting my private member bill (see below) -It is time to question if the current fiscal management is meeting the needs of Ontario’s residents or if a change in direction—and potentially leadership—is necessary to steer the province towards a more sustainable and prosperous future. |
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| Response to the FAO report on Economic and Budget Outlook |
| Each year, the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) releases a report analyzing the forecast and spending estimates for expected government expenditures. The FAO analysis shows that the government is now overestimating tax revenue; I believe this is to hide the fact that government deficits are likely much higher than projected in the budget. I drafted a news release on this issue, which you can read below. |
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| Debate and Questions Related to the Budget |
| Premier does not follow his own law The government added $93 billion in new debt since 2018 and is on track to add $60 billion more. I simply asked the government to follow their own law and publish a debt management plan. This budget marks the 4th time they have failed to publish their plan. We received no response. Watch my question here |  |
 | Insiders are getting public dollars while public healthcare struggles Private staffing agencies make big profits while hospital budgets are strained. These companies are close to the government and are reaping the rewards while Ontarians struggle. Watch my debate here |
| Fiscally irresponsible government The government is loading up on debt while public services are starved. Just recently the government lost $357 million from the federal government for affordable housing because their developer friends would not profit from it. Watch my debate here |  |
 | $93 billion in new debt since 2018 We have so little to show for the massive debt taken on by this government and for their huge deficits. This government simply cannot spend responsibly and is creating deficits while they make their rich friends richer. Watch my debate here |
| Gravy train rolling through Queen’s Park The Sunshine List revealed the Premier is running the most expensive Premier’s Office in history with 48 senior staff collectively earning $6.9M. Yet the Premier’s Office only reports expenditures of $2.4M. The math does not add up so I asked him where he was hiding the money. Watch my question here |  |
 | The Government is hiding issues to cover their mistakes I asked the Premier to explain why they are hiding information from the people of Ontario related to the Greenbelt, the Ontario Place redevelopment and the projected shortage of healthcare workers. Watch my question here |
| Cutting Small Business Taxes |
| A few weeks ago I stood with my caucus collogues, Bonnie Crombie, and Ryan Mallough from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) to share news about a bill that I tabled that afternoon. If passed, the bill would cut the small business tax rate by half, from the 3.2% to 1.6%, and increase the income threshold that is eligible for this deduction from $500,000 to $600,000, allowing more business owners to qualify. Nearly 275,000 out of Ontario’s 450,000 small businesses will benefit from this tax cut, which would save small businesses up to $18,000 per year, allowing for increased investments in advanced machinery, new hires, business expansion, and driving economic productivity. |
 Press conference on small business tax cut This bill would make a meaningful difference for thousands of small businesses and it would have been a positive growth driver to include in the budget. We are proposing solutions to the government’s mistakes and I hope that they will take the opportunity to fix this one by supporting my bill. Watch my statement here |