Ontario finance minister defends new budget amid objections

Article content

Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says critics have unfairly attacked the province’s 2024 budget.

‘Well, they’re wrong,” the minister told the National Post editorial board in late May, “and I’ll tell you why.”

“We are committed to a path to balance. I believe strongly in balancing the books,” Bethlenfalvy said. The minister blamed the province’s prolonged deficit on stagnating revenues “because the economy is slow.”

Article content

Last year, the minister pledged the province was on a pathway to balancing its books by 2024 and even projected a $200-million surplus. However, in late March, Bethlenfalvy revealed that Ontario’s forthcoming budget would more than triple its deficit from $3 billion to nearly $10 billion.

“We’re not immune from global forces in the economic environment, so our revenues are down and the costs for many things are up, including for governments,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters following his presentation of the budget at Queen’s Park in late March. “You can either put on the brakes, or you can keep going forward, supporting the infrastructure spend, supporting the economy, supporting workers, and that’s the way we’ve chosen.”

The Ontario finance ministry’s plan included increased funding packages earmarked for housing, health care, infrastructure and education. Many conservatives expressed dismay that Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government failed to live up to its earlier promises. Meanwhile, Ontario Liberals and New Democrats assailed the budget for failing to properly commit to revitalizing the province.

Article content

Article content

“What we got today just goes to show how deeply out of touch and out of ideas Doug Ford’s Conservatives are,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said. “It’s half-measures after half-measures and, you know, really at the end of the day, we’re spending more and getting less at the end of the day from this government.”

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie called it “a do-nothing budget,” adding, “it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

Bethlenfalvy told the Post editorial board such criticism failed to account for the complexity of Ontario’s current economic picture.

“We’re the only major jurisdiction that has a path to balance,” the minister said, pointing to Quebec, British Columbia and the federal government in Ottawa that he argued were on the wrong financial track.

“I can’t control revenues, we can just put in the conditions,” Bethlenfalvy explained. “Our expenditures, I think, are very reasonable given that we have a growing population. I think we’re doing very well. We had over a million-people increase in the last two years; we have an aging population; and our big components of spending are health care, education and social services. So I think we’re doing very well.”

Article content

Bethlenfalvy reiterated his advocacy for better infrastructure, pointing to his meeting with federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in December, alongside other provincial finance ministers from across the country.

“I’m a long-term thinker. We gotta think through (an economic) cycle. You know, interest rates will abate, and financiers will come back in and that doesn’t mean we slow down investing in infrastructure; investing in the conditions to building more housing,” Bethlenfalvy told the Post.

“As much as I want to balance the books today, I’m equally focused on building the infrastructure — not just the housing — but also, how are you gonna move people? You know, we’ve got four subway (construction projects) going on at the same time, we’re $30 billion invested in building highways, $70 billion for subways and public transit. The schools, were $16  billion for building schools, building health care hospitals.”

When asked whether he or the Ford government had any interest in expanding the province’s private health-care options, the minister demurred.

Article content

“I don’t think there’s a national consensus for that,” he said. “I don’t see any major federal parties campaigning” for that. “If someone’s got a better idea, sure, there could be a conversation on that. But right now, we’re certainly in Ontario focused on the pooling of risk and getting better outcomes and respecting taxpayers’ money as we do it.”

“I got an appetite for a lot of things; I’m not sure that would be the one I would lean into. But you’d have to ask the premier and the health and care minister.”

Bethlenfalvy spoke about his start in politics by recalling his family’s flight from Europe and the Second World War in the mid-1940s and his earlier years in Montreal.

“I was just very grateful for what Canada gave them. I remember being a young kid saying, ‘Well, what a great country.’ ‘Cause I heard all the horror stories of war. I became a federalist very early on and was very upset when Parti Québécois won in 1976,” he said.

“I think at that point, I became more active in politics. I was part of the 1980 referendum for the ‘No’ side and then when (Brian) Mulroney ran for the (federal conservative) leadership in ’83, I volunteered for that and so became a conservative at a young age.”

The memory of his mother’s best friend, who similarly left Hungary but emigrated to Venezuela instead, left an imprint on Bethlenfalvy. “That always impacted me. That two countries who kind of had the resources and the opportunity; one went one way, and the other went the other way. Why is that?”

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

Article content