Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Ford government for increasing this year’s budget deficit by $4.3 billion and pushing plans to balance the budget back by another year.

“Ontario is drowning in debt and Premier Doug Ford is making everything worse,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “Instead of taking the debt seriously, the Ford government is ballooning the deficit and waiting two years to balance the books. Ford is leaving future generations with a massive debt tab because he refuses to make tough choices.”

In Budget 2023, the Ford government projected a deficit of $1.3 billion for 2023-24. Instead, the deficit is now projected to be $5.6 billion. The government is also planning to run a $5.3 billion deficit next year instead of the $200 million surplus it promised in its March budget.

“The Ford government is being incredibly reckless with our children’s’ future,” Goldberg said. “There’s no other way to say it. Ford is even spending money faster than his spend-happy predecessors, including former premier Kathleen Wynne.”

The Ford government also announced it is creating a new Ontario Infrastructure Bank, modeled on the federal government’s Canada Infrastructure Bank. The government plans to give the province’s new infrastructure bank starting funds amounting to $3 billion.

“The last thing Ontario taxpayers want to hear is that the government is creating costly and wasteful new bureaucracy,” Goldberg said. “The Canada Infrastructure Bank has been a money pit at the federal level and creating a provincial infrastructure bank modeled on the federal approach is a big mistake.”

The government now says it doesn’t expect to balance the budget until 2025-26.

Debt interest payments are expected to rise from $13.4 billion this year to $15.2 billion by 2025-26.