More than just reannouncements for Niagara in provincial budget
There’s also record-breaking deficit, Niagara opposition MPPs say of Ford government spending
Although the Ontario government’s 2024 budget includes a “reannouncement of a reannouncement” for several Niagara-specific projects, Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff says there’s also much more funding included that may benefit the region.
While the budget released Tuesday included funding for several Niagara projects, the region’s New Democrat MPPs said they’ve heard those announcements at least once before — such as ongoing support for new hospitals under construction in Niagara Falls and Grimsby, $2.3 million recently provided to St. Catharines and $1.7 million for Welland through the Building Faster Fund, and the elimination of a 6.1 per cent tax on wine sales.
“A lot of the stuff that’s in the budget is a reannouncement of a reannouncement, and in some cases a reannouncement of that reannouncement,” said Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates.
St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens said Niagara residents wanted the budget to address issues such as child care, seniors “and something for food banks that are running out of food, and all these things we’ve been asking this government to pay attention to.”
“But they just reannounced old money,” she said.
Oosterhoff, the region’s lone Progressive Conservative representative, however, said the budget also includes a lot of new funding the region’s communities will be able to access.
That includes $1.8 billion for new housing infrastructure Ontario municipalities will be able to apply for.
“I know already a number of municipalities in Niagara are applying for those projects,” he said. “You’re going to see a lot of that money flowing into Niagara through different projects.”
Oosterhoff said a $200-million sport and recreation infrastructure fund will likely benefit projects in the region, as well.
“While the budget announced the programs — like $1.8 billion for housing for example — it doesn’t say how that’s broken down. So, hopefully, I’ll be with the minister (of finance Peter Bethlenfalvy) pretty soon and we’ll be able to see what the specific numbers are for a place like Niagara.”
Although Niagara has already received $2.1 million from a provincewide investment in expanding primary health care, Oosterhoff said there may be opportunities for additional investments in the region as a result of the total $546 million being spent to enhance access to health care provincewide.
“Looking at the big picture and saying, ‘Oh, it’s $546 million over all of Ontario — that doesn’t mean anything new for Niagara,’ well, yes it does,” he said. “But the specifics haven’t been broken down yet by region.”
Oosterhoff listed health spending as one of the budget’s highlights.
It includes $2 billion in increased funding for home-care services over the next three years, adding to $1 billion earmarked for expansion of services announced last year.
Although Niagara Regional Police won’t be getting one of the four new helicopters being allotted to Toronto-area law enforcement agencies, NRP spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin said the region may benefit from an investment to combat auto theft.
“Currently, the Niagara Regional Police Service is a member of the provincial strategy to prevent auto thefts and conducts investigations in partnership with Ontario police services and international partners,” she said. “This investigative initiative has been made possible by a grant from the ministry of the solicitor general, allowing the NRPS to create the auto theft investigation and prevention unit.”
Despite the investments, Gates and Stevens said the budget falls short of meeting the needs of Niagara residents.
“There’s nothing in there that’s going to address what I think is the biggest crisis going on, and that’s affordability,” Gates said.
“There’s nothing in there for rent controls, there’s nothing in there to help pay for groceries, and nothing in there really for seniors who are struggling.”
Gates is also concerned healthcare investments continue to focus on private providers, “which is just going to continue to take dollars out of the publicly funded, publicly delivered health-care system.”
The budget deficit was another concern for Niagara’s New Democrats.
“It’s almost $10 billion,” Gates said. “It’s surprising to me that it had gone up that much … And this is supposed to be a government that’s fiscally responsible.”
Stevens called it the largest deficit the province has ever seen.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “The deficit the (Premier Doug) Ford government has put us in is larger than the deficit they inherited from the Liberals.”
Oosterhoff said it’s crucial the province has a plan to balance the budget in the next few years, “in a way that doesn’t harm families or cut services.”
“There’s a $7-billion hit to revenues this year because of the economic slowdown right now that’s across the globe,” he said, adding it contributed significantly to the deficit.
“We’re going to make sure that as we see those numbers progress toward a surplus in 2026 ... we do that in a way that continues to be respectful of the need for infrastructure.”