When Morningstar DBRS raised Ontario’s credit rating to AA recently, reversing a long trend of decline under the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals, it gave the latest clear proof that our Progressive Conservative government’s plan to build Ontario is working.
That plan, which we have been delivering on ever since we were elected in 2018, is an equally conservative and ambitious roadmap to invest in growth while cutting taxes and fees.
We’re making historic investments in roads, transit, housing, health care and manufacturing, while still tracking a clear path back to balance. And we continue to be focused on keeping costs down for hardworking Ontario families, even as our province grows at record speed. In the last two years alone, we added nearly a million new residents. That’s over 1,300 people per day — on par with Texas, the fastest growing (and a much larger) U.S. state.
This growth is helping fuel our economy and fill the gaps in our labour market, but we know that it’s also creating demand for infrastructure, homes, highways and government services.
Facing these pressures, we had a choice to make — continue to invest in our plan to build, or cancel projects and raise taxes. We chose the former.
We’re building new highways, like Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, and we’re improving existing roads, including by building major new highway interchanges in places like Windsor and Ottawa.
We’re expanding GO Transit service and public transit across Ontario, with major new projects like the Ontario Line in Toronto that will help people and goods get around faster.
We’re investing $50 billion in more than 50 new and upgraded hospitals across the province, while training new doctors and nurses to meet demand through new medical schools in Brampton and Vaughan.
And we’re keeping taxes and fees low, including by cutting the gas tax, removing licence fees, banning new road tolls and introducing “One Fare,” which allows transit users across the Greater Toronto Area to only pay once when switching between transit systems. Delaying these investments would cost us dearly by reducing our economic potential and long-term tax revenue.
Our plan is ambitious and it’s attracting confidence from investors around the world.
After our budget was released in March, I met with fund managers and bondholders from New York, Stockholm, Paris and London who are lining up to invest in Ontario. A little over four months into the fiscal year, we have already raised well over 50 per cent of our annual borrowing needs.
This appetite to invest in Ontario has helped lower our interest on debt relative to revenue to the lowest level since the 1980s. Last year, Ontario issued bonds for terms as long as 30 years to extend the term of our debt, which will help lower the cost of borrowing by around $2 billion over the next three years, as we keep investing in the province’s future.
Think about it this way: those savings will more than cover the cost of the $1.8 billion that our last budget earmarked for infrastructure to support building more homes, which in turn will help more people in Ontario find a home they can actually afford.
Compare Ontario’s plan to what’s happening elsewhere. The federal government now spends more on interest than on health care. The United States government spends more on interest than on national defence.
While others have given up on balanced budgets and seen their credit ratings downgraded by the agencies, Ontario is proving that a clear plan, coupled with competent and responsible fiscal management, gets rewarded by capital markets.
When that happens, it’s ultimately the taxpayers who benefit.
Our government’s plan proves you can be fiscally responsible, and maintain a path to balance, while making strategic investments in the economy, infrastructure and workers.
We refuse to make life more unaffordable by increasing taxes and fees on the people of Ontario, or to push away economic growth that would take away our ability to responsibly invest in future generations.
Instead, our government has chosen to keep responsibly and prudently building Ontario. And we’re getting it done.
National Post
Peter Bethlenfalvy is the finance minister of Ontario.