What if you were finance minister?

Ontarians asked to vote on ideas to include in Sousa’s last budget before election

Should willing senior citizens be tapped to mentor children having trouble reading and writing?

Is it time to build a greenhouse vegetable operation near James Bay in hopes it can supply less-expensive produce to residents in remote northern communities?

Those are two of 13 ideas from the public Finance Minister Charles Sousa is considering for this year’s provincial budget — the last before Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals face the June 7 election in what polls suggest will be a tight race.

Ontarians are being asked to cast online votes on the concepts, selected from more than 700 submissions, at Ontario.ca/budgettalks by 5 p.m. Jan. 26 with Sousa earmarking up to $5 million in his fiscal blueprint to bring them to life.

Ideas that didn’t make the grade for this year’s budget include a proposal that “grey water” from sinks and bathtubs be rerouted to flush toilets and a push for a crackdown on smokers who throw butts on the street.

The senior citizen mentor project would provide funding for “senior buddies” to spend three days a week in local schools “to spend an hour with the identified students who have difficulty in reading or writing.”

Both struggling kids and potentially lonely seniors would benefit, and teachers would get some muchneeded extra help, the proponent wrote.

“A program linking older adults with elementary students not only provides kids with academic and social support, but also gives older volunteers a positive perception of how they can help the next generation.”

On the idea for a greenhouse vegetable and fruit farm in the north, the proponent says a pilot project is needed to test its viability.

“Fruit and vegetable prices in northern communities are extremely high and given the high level of unemployment, many families cannot afford to buy healthy food,” the proposal says.

Other ideas include getting elementary schoolchildren more involved in gardening, improved mental-health services and a series of 25 “community hubs” to help parents of children just diagnosed with autism to navigate the care system.

Interest in the budget from wouldbe finance ministers has gone up this year, with submissions almost doubling from the 404 ideas proposed in 2017, when the winners were reducing and preventing food waste, improving digital services for libraries and accessing digitized health data.