(AUDIO) 2016 Ontario Budget highlights and reaction

University and college will soon be free for students from low-income families in Ontario, but prices are going up on wine, tobacco, gasoline and heating for most homeowners.

The showcase pledge in Finance Minister Charles Sousa‘s 2016-17 budget is an Ontario Student Grant.

Under the new program, half of students from families with incomes of $83,000 will qualify for non-repayable grants for tuition and no student will receive less than they can currently receive.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli says he’s disappointed about the fine print with the announcement.

Fedeli, the PC Finance Critic also says there was ample opportunity for the Finance Minister to talk about the north and he didn’t.

There isn’t much given to the Ring of Fire either.

Meantime, he says life is much more unaffordable now.

Ontario’s new cap-and-trade plan to combat climate change adding about 4.3 cents a litre to the price of gasoline and about $5 a month to natural gas home heating bills in the first year.  Taxes on cigarettes are also rising $3 per carton and wine prices are going up.

Fedeli also says a number of tax credits are also gone, including the child activity tax credit, the healthy home renovation credit and student tuition tax credit.

Meantime, there is more money going into the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund to help municipalities build infrastructure.

Sousa says it involves those communities with fewer than 100,000 people and in northern and rural areas.

After meeting with several northern municipal representatives this week at the Ontario Good Roads Association conference Fedeli questions how much of an impact the funding will have.

Meantime, the province announced over 10 years, it will invest $11-billion to improve the conditions of schools and $12-billion in hospital capital improvements.

Hospitals are also getting their first base funding increase in five years, up $345-million.

The budget includes a 1.5 per cent increase in welfare and disability support payments in the fall.

There will also be a top up for those with the lowest social assistance rates, singles without children relying on Ontario Works, bringing their total increase to 25-dollars a month.

As for the deficit, it’s expected to come in at $5.7 billion in fiscal 2015-16, down from the last estimate of $7.5 billion.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa predicts the deficit for 2016-17 will be $4.6 billion, and will be reduced to zero the following year.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

Here are the highlights:

– University and college tuition will be free for students from families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and more than half of students from families with incomes up to $83,000 will receive non-repayable grants that exceed the average tuition, mostly students who live on their own.
– Hospitals will get their first funding increase in five years, up $345 million, plus $12 billion over 10 years in capital grants for about three dozen major hospital projects.
– The budget deficit for fiscal year 2015-16 is expected to come in at $5.7 billion, down from the last estimate of $7.5 billion.
– The deficit for 2016-17 is projected to come in at $4.6 billion and be reduced to zero the following fiscal year.
– Ontario’s net debt will hit $308 billion in 2016-17, the largest of any sub-national jurisdiction in the world, costing $11.8 billion in interest payments, which will increase to $13.1 billion by 2018-19.
– Income from the cap-and-trade plan to battle climate change is expected to hit $1.9 billion in 2017, up from last year’s projection of $1.3 billion.
– There will be a $3 increase in the price of a carton of 200 cigarettes, effective at 12:01 a.m. 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 two percentage point hike in June, about 10 cents a bottle, followed by another two percentage points in 2017 and 2018, with a one-point hike in 2019.
– There will also be annual increases of about 10 cents in the tax on wine sold in private retail outlets, increasing from 16.1 cents to 20.1 cents over four years.
– The $30 fee for Drive Clean vehicle emissions tests will be eliminated in 2017-18, but not the tests themselves, which will cost the province $60 million a year.
– Single seniors earning up to $19,300 per year will be eligible for cheaper drugs starting in August, compared with the previous threshold of $16,018. Couples with an income of up to $32,300 will also be eligible, where before only those earning $24,175 qualified. The costs will be offset by raising deductibles and co-payments for seniors above the new income thresholds. Annual deductibles will rise to $170 from $100 and co-payments will increase by a dollar to $7.11.
– There will be $333 million over five years to redesign and improve autism services.
– Shingles vaccines for seniors, which cost $170, will be free.