Ontario's budget is on the table.
It was delivered around 4pm on Thursday at Queen's Park in Toronto by Finance Minister Charles Sousa.
The province plans to offer free university and college tuition to students in families with a total income less than $50,000. Students living in households where the total income is under $83,000 will receive non-repayable grants that exceed average tuition costs.
But it raises concerns for Windsor West MPP and NDP Education Critic Lisa Gretzky.
"The minister himself has stated that this is not new money that they're putting into the system." She says, "They're actually pulling the money that they would use for the free tuition from other programs, and there hasn't really been any clarification as to what programs those would be."
Gretzky says the NDP is all for making post-secondary education more accessible, but she'll be keeping an eye on what the cost will be in this scenario.
Environmentally, a new cap-and-trade plan is being introduced this year to battle climate change.
It's expected to produce $1.9-billion for the province in 2017. That's up from last year's projection of $1.3-billion.
The "cap" will set a limit on emissions for businesses. Companies can then trade carbon allowances that they may not use to others in need of more space.
Windsor's Citizens Environmental Alliance Derek Coronado says Ontario's not re-inventing the wheel with the program, but it's a good start.
He adds, "We like the fact that the funds raised through the cap-and-trade program will be going into complimentary programs to further reduce carbon emissions."
Coronado's also happy to see that the province has actually written gas emission reduction targets into its legislation. In the budget, the Liberal government says it's aiming to get to 15% below 1990 emission levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
Overall, the province is still sitting on $7.5-billion of debt.
It plans to bring that down to $5.7-billion over the next year, $4.6-billion the following fiscal year, before eliminating it completely by 2018.
Other budget highlights include:
- Hospitals will see a funding increase of up to $345-million, plus $12-billion over 10 years in capital grants for about three dozen major hospital projects.
- A $3 increase in the price of a carton of 200 cigarettes, effective at 12:01am on Friday, and the tobacco tax will keep rising at the rate of inflation each year over the next five years.
- The minimum price for a bottle of wine rises to $7.95, and there will be a series of increases in the LCBO's mark-up on wine, starting with a 0.2% hike in June; about 10 cents per bottle, followed by another 0.2% in 2017 and 2018, with a 0.1% hike in 2019.
- There will be $333-million over five years to redesign and improve autism services.
- Shingles vaccines for seniors, which cost $170, will be free.
