Ontario’s 2023 Budget misses the moment

Thursday, March 23 was budget day at the Ontario Legislature, with all the fanfare it brings.

As I sat in Ottawa Centre’s chair, leafing quickly through briefings and the budget documents themselves, I drew one major conclusion: this government missed the moment.

Sitting on swelling tax revenues (linked to the rising costs of living), they could have made massive investments in the things that matter most.

Schools in the Glebe need funding. To cite one reason: thousands of autistic kids across Ontario will be leaving the legacy Ontario Autism Program on April 1 and entering public schools. These kids need help to make this adjustment, but schools are facing cuts. This is no recipe for success.

Our health care system faces massive strain. Ontario’s nurses earn the lowest wages in Canada. The backlog for surgical procedures continues to grow. The Ford government’s response is to ensure for-profit clinics operate inside our public hospital system.

(We’ve been supporting The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) staff speaking up about these clinics, noting the threat to patients given the poaching of staff. TOH Management and the Ford government have denied these concerns, but we will keep pushing for answers.)

On April 22, the world will celebrate Earth Day. Nothing in Budget 2023 helps Ontario mark that occasion with any sense of pride, and delay is inexcusable.

Residents in the Glebe know the serious effects climate change will have, and already is having, on our community.

Our beloved Rideau Canal Skateway, which could not open this year for the first time in its history, may never find the optimal conditions to open again. Just last May Ottawa was rocked by a windstorm that downed over 400 hydro poles, levying damage in excess of $875 million provincewide (and $19.5 million in Ottawa).

In March the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change insisted we continue progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global rise of temperatures to 1.5 degrees by the end of the present century. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “...our world needs climate action on all fronts –everything, everywhere, all at once.”

This sense of climate urgency is nowhere in Budget 2023.

It offers a whopping $70 billion to privately built transit systems (all of which are over-budget and past deadline), but nothing to support the public transit we have. For many of our neighbours who rely heavily on the bus, especially key routes like the 6 and 7, the impacts to service that come from underfunding will be detrimental. Transit riders in the Glebe will wait longer for the bus, while the death spiral of less service and high fares continues.

Budget 2023 commits Ontario to new gas-fired electrical plants to offset the refurbishing of Ontario’s nuclear reactors. We could renew our energy partnership with Quebec using hydroelectricity, it would be more affordable and better for the planet.

There is no serious action in Budget 2023 for affordable housing, nothing meaningful for Indigenous reconciliation and nothing of substance for post-secondary education. We could add more items to the list, but the theme is clear. Budget 2023 is a disappointment. Glebe residents deserved better.

I will continue to raise these and other concerns in the Legislature, but as your representative in Toronto I want to hear from you. If you have opinions to share with me on Budget 2023, or any other matters, please send a message to joel@joelharden.ca.

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Yasir Naqvi MP Ottawa Centre