Framing Ford’s fiscal follies

William Paul  – 2025-02-14

The Ford government was clear from the very beginning in 2018: Ontario is open for business – other aspects of the public good – no – but definitely open for business. As Venai Raniga writes in  “Against the People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario” Doug Ford’s Tories lent businesses a helping hand to the tune of an  estimated $1.2 billion annually, limiting environmental and worker health and safety protection, capping development funds for school boards and the like. To that, they added $10 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for corporations.1

And yet, despite the leg up for business Raniga explains that Ontario has declined over the years with wages stagnating and the income gap growing wider than any other province. It will shock no one that, between 2019 and 2022, the wealthiest 20 percent in Ontario saw their incomes clamber up by 13 percent while most other Ontarians made do with 5 percent on average.  Cancelling the previous Liberal government’s surtax on high incomes -it would have generated $275 million for the province-  no doubt helped to maintain the difference between the rich and the rest of us.

Ford stuck to his for some of the people plan, capping the minimum wage at $14 per hour in 2018 rather than the promised $15, cutting paid emergency leave for workers while letting employers pay part-time or temporary workers less as well as cutting penalties for labour standards violations. He even did an Elon Musk before there was a DOGE, paying 2 400 public service employees $190 million to quit their jobs. Ford’s Bill 124, capping public sector wages at 1 percent annually was struck down by the Ontario Court of Appeal, putting the government on the hook for $6 billion in catch-up payments. He even threatened to pre-emptively use the constitutional override, “notwithstanding clause” in case his legislation forcing low-paid CUPE education workers to accept an imposed contract was struck down in court. Facing an impending general strike across the province, Ford blinked.

While Doug Ford helped keep wages down, his response to inflation has definitely been “buck a beer.” He and his Tory supporters may not need to worry about sky-high increases in food and housing, but offering spare change to people who suffer from his government is an insult: reducing tax on a litre of gas by 5.7 cents, cutting the $120 fee for renewing car licenses and of course, the shameful pay-the-people-$200-for -their-votes plan that the people who need it most won’t get.2 Getting that bit of our own money cost us $3 billion.

Yet when it comes time to improve any of this, Tories shrug and point to bare cupboards as they explain there’s no money to put toward fixing public health, long term care, housing, schools – you name it. In a review of the provincial government’s 2022 budget the Auditor General said the Ford government underestimated its revenues while overestimating its expenses3, something Venai Raniga describes as “false fiscal conservatism” that may be used as an excuse to cut public services.4

While Ontario has the largest economy in the country, in 2022 it spent $13 065 per capita on its residents. That’s less than any other province and $3 338 below the average of the rest of Canada. Raniga notes that spending is projected to drop throughout 2024-25 by 2.1 percent, 2025-26 by 1.5 percent and 2026-27 by another 2.1 percent. Cuts are planned across most sectors like Health, Education and Social Services.5  Yet, maintenance of Ontario’s infrastructure – roads, hospitals, schools, transit- across the province is backlogged by $16.8 billion. To replace and repair schools alone is going to cost $31.4 billion over the next 10 years.

To sum it up: If you can pay then you’re okay in Tory Ontario. The Ford government makes it hard to earn a living, should raise taxes on wealthier people but chooses not to and sits on a growing pile of need to build and maintain basic public goods.

 

 

 

Notes:

  1. Venai Raniga, “Manufacturing a Fiscal Crisis,” in Against the People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario,” Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli, eds. Fernwood Publishing, 2025.
  2. Ibid p. 19 and 20
  3. Bonnie Lysyk, “Review of the Pre-election 2022 Multi-Year Fiscal Plan,” Auditor General of Ontario, May 2022. www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/special-reports/specialreports//Pre-Election-2022_EN.pdf. Cited in Raniga, 2025
  4. Ibid p. 20
  5. Ibid p.22