The Liberal government's 2016 budget features a social agenda working towards affordable housing, free tuition and social assistance as well as drug benefits for seniors.
The Ontario government says it is on track to eliminate a $5.7-billion deficit in the next fiscal year. But it's reluctant to acknowledge that revenue from the partial sale of Hydro One and the $1.9 billion expected from a new carbon pricing system are two of the big reasons for eliminating the deficit.
And gas prices and heating costs are going to rise along with wine and tobacco prices.
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson is the PC Critic for the Ministry of the Environment & Climate Change and is a member of the Standing Committee on General Government and says that we have to look at where the $1.9-billion dollars will come from.
"It's a tax in the name of the environment, and that tax is going to be achieved at the gas pumps and in increases on our home heating," she says. "Gas at the gas pumps could go up as much as $400 a year and home heating could go up as much as $475 so the remaining bulk of that $1.9 billion will be on the backs of our manufacturers and small business."
Ontario's budget will also allow more seniors to be eligible for cheaper drugs starting in August.
The income threshold for single seniors is increasing to $19,300 per year while couples with an income of $32,300 will be eligible. But it comes at a cost of raising deductible and co-payments for seniors above the new income thresholds .
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker is the PC Associate Health Critic for Long-Term Care.
"It's great to put in the odd little bobble that you're going to get a free vaccine but there are so many other things they're going to be dipping into your pocket to ask for so you save 10 or 12 bucks here, $24 over the year but I think there's another one, you know, it's going to be a $100 hit to you as well, have you really gained anything at the end of the day?" says Walker.
As part of the budget, the province will inject an additional $178 million into affordable housing over three years.
The province says that it will provide subsidies and benefits to more households, though the exact number has yet to be determined.
How much of that money will actually float into midwestern Ontario is a mystery too.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker welcomes additional affordable housing but says long term care homes are in dire need of more funding.
"They're crumbling around us, they committed two budgets ago to redevelop all these beds, nothing in there for that. Nothing in there about improved staffing levels, that obviously is very directly co related with the care that you receive ," says Walker.
Walker is pleased to see an increase in hospital budgets.
However he says they've been frozen for five years, and energy costs are on the rise, so he questions if there is really a net benefit.
Also in the budget, for students, the province is scrapping its current tuition grants and funnelling the money into a single program that will provide free post-secondary tuition to students from families with incomes up to $50,000.
But Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson says it only applies to a very small number of students.
"When we look at the numbers, more than 70% of students in Ontario will not qualify for that full grant; it certainly is a help but it's not for everyone," adds Thompson.
With files from Craig Power and Janice MacKay
