The Ontario government’s mandate is to protect the province, its communities, workers, and businesses. In the face of U.S. tariffs, rising costs, and ongoing economic uncertainty, the provincial budget must help Ontarians to withstand current and future shocks.
To do this, the government must make targeted investments so that all Ontarians can live with dignity, opportunity, and equitable treatment, especially those who have fallen the furthest behind. Previous provincial budgets have increased financial vulnerability for people living on low incomes. These results are troubling and unacceptable. In 2023, Ontario’s poverty rate reached 12.3 per cent, a 66 per cent increase since 2020. This increase occurred alongside record increases in the number of children living in poverty, people struggling to afford food, and people living without permanent or safe housing.
As life becomes increasingly challenging, Ontarians with low and unreliable incomes face a steeper climb out of poverty. When the province delays action, hardship deepens, and public systems absorb higher costs through increased demand for health care, emergency services, and income supports.
Ontario cannot become resilient, self-reliant, or prosperous while a growing share of the population moves further away from economic stability.
The upcoming budget offers a critical chance to change course by funding policies that meet people’s core needs and help them enter, remain in, and advance through the labour market. These needs fall into three interconnected priorities:
Ontarians Need More Income
- Index Ontario Works Rates and Increase Social Assistance to Ensure Adequacy and Economic Resilience
- Increase Ontario’s Minimum Wage to $20/Hour to Reflect the Cost of Living
Ontarians Need to Keep Their Money
- Raise Ontario Works Earnings Exemptions to $1,000/Month to Eliminate Poverty Traps
- Stop Clawbacks on Federal Benefits
- Invest to End Wage Theft and Recover Unpaid Wages
Ontarians Need Stability, Safety, and Opportunity
- Extend Full Employment Standards Act Protections to App-Based Gig and Precarious Workers
- Legislate Ten Permanent Paid Sick Days Plus an Additional Fourteen in Public Health Emergencies
- Fix Social Assistance by Funding Client-Centred Life Stabilization and by Enabling Sustainable Employment
Click here to read the full budget submission (link opens to a PDF in a new window.)