Last week, the Ontario government tabled a $214 billion budget for 2024-25, the largest in the province’s history. But if you are among the hundreds of thousands of low income working age Ontarians struggling to make both ends meet amid the affordability and cost of living crisis, unfortunately, there is little in it for you to be excited about.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy in his budget announcement to the legislature said that the Budget 2024 is a continuation of a plan that is working well. We are disappointed to see that it is also a continuation of policies that fail to acknowledge the needs of low income Ontarians which sentences them to continued poverty and inequality.
OW and ODSP rates remain punishingly low
As mentioned in our Pre-Budget Submission 2024, there is hardly any justification for keeping the rates for Ontario Works, upon which almost 428,000 low income families rely on, to a punishingly inadequate $733 for the sixth year and counting. The budget does not increase the base rates for shelter and basic needs, or even index them to inflation. This is confounding, especially given the record high cost of living and an 18 per cent increase in the prices of essential goods and services since 2018. In this context, no increase to the rates translates to a reduction in rates.
While Ontario Disability Support Program recipients will see a slight increase to the base amount they receive due to a previously legislated adjustment of ODSP rates to inflation, it is unclear how much the inflationary increase to ODSP rates will be at this point. Even with this small increase, one thing is for sure: ODSP rates will still be nowhere close to the poverty line. The province yet again leaves ODSP recipients with little to combat the ongoing housing and affordability crises, dysfunctional ODSP policies, and barriers to work.
The budget, however, does anticipate a one per cent increase in both OW and ODSP caseloads in 2024-25, and estimates expenses of $30 million and $63 million respectively for these increases. The expansion is a small acknowledgement of the growing number of individuals having to depend on social assistance for subsistence, but it is made in the absence of the expansion of the tried and true solution to reducing poverty: putting more money directly into the pockets of vulnerable and impoverished people.
While there was a welcome emphasis on building federal-provincial partnerships to support capital infrastructure costs, supporting cities, and growing Ontario’s electric vehicle supply chain (pg 160), we hoped to see the partnership extended in working to eliminate temporary federal pandemic benefit-related debt for all Ontarians living below the official poverty line who received temporary pandemic benefits in 2020 and/or 2021 but were later deemed ineligible. Ontarians who face this type of debt repayment and who are also on social assistance must also contend with a reduction in their social assistance incomes, unless they can have their assistance reassessed. This federal debt coupled with the related drop in social assistance income puts enormous pressure on vulnerable OW and ODSP recipients. Unfortunately, there was no initiative in the budget to stop the punishing practice of charging overpayments to social assistance recipients who received federal emergency pandemic related benefits, or working with the federal government to forgive their debt.
Cautious Optimism with GAINS and the Ontario Autism Program
One positive investment in the 2024 Budget is the expansion of the Ontario Guaranteed Annual Income System (GAINS) that provides a monthly, non-taxable benefit automatically to eligible low income Ontario seniors who file their taxes. The maximum benefit has been increased from $83 to $87 per month for eligible single seniors, and $166 to $174 per month for couples. The annual private income eligibility threshold has been increased from $1,992 to $4,176 for single seniors, and from $3,984 to $8,352 for couples. This allows about 100,000 more low‐income seniors to receive these payments.
In practical terms, a $4 increase in GAINS affords little beyond a few public transit rides (depending on where you live in the province). Even so, as Ontario’s social assistance system has continued to suffer in negligence over the years, the expansion of eligibility is a welcome change.
The other touted increase in investment is in the Ontario Autism Program, by $120 million in 2024-2025, which will support the enrolment of 20,000 children and youth in core clinical services. While this is a positive step forward, reportedly half of the amount is the addition from last year’s budget. The Ontario Autism Coalition has called for greater clarity about how and when the government will support access to core services for more children, including the 50,000 who are still waiting.
“Working for Workers”, but what about low-income workers?
The province is currently undergoing a rapid modernization process that sees all of the provincially distributed employment services supports moved into one system overseen by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. While this has raised a number of pressing concerns, among the present changes, many OW and ODSP recipients are experiencing cuts to the financial support they receive for transportation, which enable access to pre-employment training and classes for job-seekers who receive social assistance. The 2024 Budget does not assuage concerns about this missing funding, and only cites a 2023 Budget investment of an additional $15 million over three years for Better Jobs Ontario.
The budget is also devoid of any commitment to meaningfully increase minimum wage beyond the rate of inflation. In October, minimum wage workers in Ontario will see an increase from $16.55 per hour to $17.20 due to indexing to inflation, but the minimum wage will still remain significantly lower than the Living Wage rate of any region in Ontario, including the GTA, which was noted to be $25.05 per hour in 2023.
Diminishing proportion of investment in Children, Community and Social Services
The budget projects only a $200 million increase in expenses for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, from $19.9 billion in 2024-25 to $20.1 billion in 2026–27. The increase is to address operational costs for community organizations that support vulnerable populations, including children in care and those with special needs, and to index ODSP and the maximum monthly amount for the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities Program to inflation.
While the monetary value of expenses on MCCSS has slightly increased from 2023-24 ($19.4B) to 2024-25 ($19.9B), the proportion of expenditure on the overall budget had slightly decreased from 9.5 per cent to 9.3 per cent between the two fiscal years. There is an overall marked downward trend that sees the sector’s program expenses decrease from 11.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 9.6 per cent by 2026-27.
No Real Lifeline for Low-Income Ontarians
The trend of diminishing investment in the Ministry that manages many significant and crucial supports for children, families, seniors, people with disabilities and low income community members is alarming. This is particularly concerning given the rising need for the Ontario social safety net to catch and support everyone who is struggling to survive the cost of living crisis, low-waged precarious work, food insecurity, and the housing crisis. The large deficit can hardly be used as an excuse; as Maytree points out, it is almost negligible compared to Ontario’s total spending and Ontario’s net debt to GDP this year. In the current climate of unaffordability and income insecurity, any policy positions that aren’t bold are regressive, and put the province further behind where we need to be when it comes to improving the lives of low income Ontarians.
The 2024 Budget was an opportunity to change course and show true commitment to provide a real lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario. Unfortunately, it was another opportunity missed.