Why is Doug Ford planning to send cheques to millionaires?
Oct. 18, 2024
Doug Ford is reportedly planning to send cheques for $200 to everyone in Ontario.
By Randy Robinson, Contributor
Randy Robinson is Ontario director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Tony Staffieri, CEO of Rogers, gets $200. RBC boss Dave McKay gets $200. Hockey star Mitch Marner gets $200.
That’s the latest imaginative idea from our Ontario government.
According to news reports, the province will soon send a cheque for $200 to every Ontarian. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy will make it official on October 30, the Star’s Robert Benzie recently reported.
This may be good politics — free money is free money — but it is terrible policy.
It’s also somewhat surprising.
In normal times, Conservatives pride themselves on being careful stewards of public dollars. They don’t mind being called cheap, or stingy; they call it being thrifty and prudent.
But these are not normal times, it seems. Premier Doug Ford’s September announcement that he will build a traffic tunnel under Highway 401 signalled a new era in Ontario public finance: the era where we have infinite money to spend on things nobody asked for.
The cost of the tunnel is both unknown and, to the premier, irrelevant: “We’re getting that tunnel built, I guarantee it,” he says. If it is ever dug, the final price tag of this elongated hole in the ground will be too high to count.
In contrast, the cost of sending $200 to every Ontarian is easily estimated: It’s about $3.2 billion. But here’s a question: Where are they getting the money?
In the short term, it will be borrowed: the province has a budget deficit right now. But in the long term, that $3.2 billion can only come out of Ontarians’ pockets — or the services they depend on.
In recent decades, right-wing pundits have been successful at separating public dollars, in the public mind, from the things those dollars pay for. They’ve created the impression that tax cuts, and cash giveaways, have no consequences.
This is not true. It has never been true.
For starters, the latest free-money plan will send public dollars to millions of Ontarians who clearly do not need them. Earlier this month, Statistics Canada reported that the richest 20 per cent of Canadians own two-thirds of all the wealth in the country.
Meanwhile, income inequality has hit record levels.
If Queen’s Park wants to give away money because “people are hurting” — a frequent Ford comment — then that assistance should go to people who are actually hurting.
With $3.2 billion, the province could triple the Ontario Child Benefit for a year and still have half a billion left over. That would give low- and middle-income families some breathing space.
With $3.2 billion, the province could double payments to Ontario Works recipients, whose incomes have been frozen since 2018. That would support Ontarians mired in deep poverty.
Alternatively, the province could boost critical programs that are currently starved for funds. Spending $3.2 billion could double, for a year, the funding for social services that support children at risk or with special needs. Programs like child protection, children’s treatment, and the Complex Special Needs program (to name a few) need all the help they can get.
The list of good places to spend $3.2 billion is a long one. Think hospitals. Home care. Housing. Municipalities. Crumbing schools with ever-larger class sizes.
With that kind of money, we could even get serious about tackling the climate emergency that threatens us all. At the moment, Ontario’s “Climate Change and Resiliency” program has a budget of $15 million — less than one two-hundredth of the cost of
sending those $200 cheques to every Ontarian. And every dollar spent on climate action now will save money down the road.
The province, of course, says it is already making big investments in public services and infrastructure. But accounting for inflation and population growth, spending on Ontario’s public services is, in almost every area, stagnant or falling. And our support for Ontarians in need is going backwards.
That’s where Queen’s Park should be putting our money.
We don’t need to mail cheques to millionaires.
Oct. 18, 2024
Doug Ford is reportedly planning to send cheques for $200 to everyone in Ontario.
By Randy Robinson, Contributor
Randy Robinson is Ontario director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Tony Staffieri, CEO of Rogers, gets $200. RBC boss Dave McKay gets $200. Hockey star Mitch Marner gets $200.
That’s the latest imaginative idea from our Ontario government.
According to news reports, the province will soon send a cheque for $200 to every Ontarian. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy will make it official on October 30, the Star’s Robert Benzie recently reported.
This may be good politics — free money is free money — but it is terrible policy.
It’s also somewhat surprising.
In normal times, Conservatives pride themselves on being careful stewards of public dollars. They don’t mind being called cheap, or stingy; they call it being thrifty and prudent.
But these are not normal times, it seems. Premier Doug Ford’s September announcement that he will build a traffic tunnel under Highway 401 signalled a new era in Ontario public finance: the era where we have infinite money to spend on things nobody asked for.
The cost of the tunnel is both unknown and, to the premier, irrelevant: “We’re getting that tunnel built, I guarantee it,” he says. If it is ever dug, the final price tag of this elongated hole in the ground will be too high to count.
In contrast, the cost of sending $200 to every Ontarian is easily estimated: It’s about $3.2 billion. But here’s a question: Where are they getting the money?
In the short term, it will be borrowed: the province has a budget deficit right now. But in the long term, that $3.2 billion can only come out of Ontarians’ pockets — or the services they depend on.
In recent decades, right-wing pundits have been successful at separating public dollars, in the public mind, from the things those dollars pay for. They’ve created the impression that tax cuts, and cash giveaways, have no consequences.
This is not true. It has never been true.
For starters, the latest free-money plan will send public dollars to millions of Ontarians who clearly do not need them. Earlier this month, Statistics Canada reported that the richest 20 per cent of Canadians own two-thirds of all the wealth in the country.
Meanwhile, income inequality has hit record levels.
If Queen’s Park wants to give away money because “people are hurting” — a frequent Ford comment — then that assistance should go to people who are actually hurting.
With $3.2 billion, the province could triple the Ontario Child Benefit for a year and still have half a billion left over. That would give low- and middle-income families some breathing space.
With $3.2 billion, the province could double payments to Ontario Works recipients, whose incomes have been frozen since 2018. That would support Ontarians mired in deep poverty.
Alternatively, the province could boost critical programs that are currently starved for funds. Spending $3.2 billion could double, for a year, the funding for social services that support children at risk or with special needs. Programs like child protection, children’s treatment, and the Complex Special Needs program (to name a few) need all the help they can get.
The list of good places to spend $3.2 billion is a long one. Think hospitals. Home care. Housing. Municipalities. Crumbing schools with ever-larger class sizes.
With that kind of money, we could even get serious about tackling the climate emergency that threatens us all. At the moment, Ontario’s “Climate Change and Resiliency” program has a budget of $15 million — less than one two-hundredth of the cost of
sending those $200 cheques to every Ontarian. And every dollar spent on climate action now will save money down the road.
The province, of course, says it is already making big investments in public services and infrastructure. But accounting for inflation and population growth, spending on Ontario’s public services is, in almost every area, stagnant or falling. And our support for Ontarians in need is going backwards.
That’s where Queen’s Park should be putting our money.
We don’t need to mail cheques to millionaires.
