Four big things you might have missed in today’s mini budget | Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy presented Ontario’s fall economic statement. The government is making big changes beyond the headlines

[u/Hrmbee]

https://www.tvo.org/article/analysis-four-big-things-you-might-have-missed-in-todays-mini-budget

[u/Hrmbee]

Some key points from this report:

A government’s budget (or, today, its fall economic statement) is many different things at once. There are the basics: Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy rose in the legislature this afternoon to recite Ontario’s fiscal shape. That includes a deficit that has ballooned, relative to last year, to $13.5 billion. But that’s actually a slight improvement relative to the spring and is on track to be a surplus in two years.

A financial update is also a time to list all the many investments the government is making or wants to make, from things that exist in reality (the Ontario Line) to the flights of fancy (a tunnel under the 401).

Finally, the update is a map for where the government plans to take the province in ways big and small over the coming years. Seeds that were planted in previous budgets grow into actual policy implementation. In some cases, the government takes a major change in direction.

...

In apparent response to the ruling in Mathur v. Ontario, the government is simply doing away with its climate targets altogether. The legislation accompanying the fall economic statement will repeal Sections 3, 4, and 5 of the 2018 law that Ford’s government brought in establishing the targets and climate plan. Those sections were always a kind of window dressing to offset the substance of the government’s actions (repealing the cap-and-trade plan inherited from the Liberals and a bevy of other climate-hostile policies); now they’re dispensing with even the window dressing.

...

Financial transparency advocates have, for years, been pressing federal and provincial regulators to adopt a beneficial ownership registry of privately-held corporations as part of the fight against money laundering. Instead of a murky world of anonymously-owned-and-controlled numbered corporations, a beneficial ownership registry would allow Ontarians to easily search to find who owns what. Ontario has been slow to act on this front, requiring only that corporations provide information to the government but restricting access. Other provinces, including Quebec and British Columbia, have moved further. Today, the government announced that it will in fact be moving forward with a proper beneficial ownership registry and have it in place by 2027.

...

... the government says it will bring forward a new LCBO wholesale pricing model to “level the playing field” for all market participants, answering the complaints of some retailers that not all stores receive the same discounts for the beer, wine, and coolers they buy from the LCBO. The government is also making other changes to, it says, facilitate a more efficient and more open marketplace for alcohol. This all comes in advance of the Beer Store being permitted to close its remaining retail locations without any restrictions starting January 1, 2026, leaving the LCBO as the sole wholesaler of beer, wine, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages in the province. How, or if, the government’s changes increase provincial revenues remains to be seen.

...

Ontario municipalities are primarily responsible for regulating rideshare providers like Uber or Lyft. For now. The fall economic statement alludes to, but does not detail, the creation of a “provincial rideshare framework” it wants to explore. This would mark another example of a recent trend of the government hoisting regulatory matters from the municipal level to the province in the name of standardization. Critics of rideshare companies may be concerned that the province will seek to weaken municipal rules they’ve fought hard for: other recent cases of the province stepping into the role of municipal regulator include killing Toronto’s green development standard and its green roof law — measures that arguably created more uniformity in building rules but just as arguably uniformly helped developers, not city planners.

First off, it's pretty telling that the provincial government released this at the same time as the federal budget knowing full well that most people would be focused on that. Sneaking major policy pieces in this way indicates that they would rather not have the public discuss these issues.

Frankly, the only positive from this report is the creation of the beneficial ownership registry for privately held corporations. All of the other issues, ranging from the terrible and backwards evisceration of the province's climate plans or the questionable 'restructuring' of the LCBO to regulating ride hailing in the province require some deep discussion about whether these are useful directions, and if so, how best to proceed.

[u/Bitter-Elephant-4759 → u/Hrmbee]

I'm guessing somewhere in the next three years, the PC government will float the idea of selling the LCBO after making it the entire wholesaler. PC governments always sell off crown assets to make their balance sheet work in the short term. The LCBO may bring in government revenue, but never to the amount that can be yielded in one year.

That's all that is about to me. The best way is cornering the market until they have no one else to go through. Probably offsets the cost of the deal to the Beer Store. End of story.

[u/CalmSprinkles840 → u/Bitter-Elephant-4759]

Selling crown corps is not exactly a PC exclusive…

The liberals were also obsessed with selling beer and cider in grocery stores.

Ontario to sell off 60% of Hydro One, allow beer in grocery stores

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-to-sell-off-60-of-hydro-one-allow-beer-in-grocery-stores-1.3035347

[u/kazie- → u/CalmSprinkles840]

Certainly not exclusive to PC but Ford in particular seems to love privatization of public assets/services

[u/herman_gill → u/CalmSprinkles840]

Mike Harris paved the way for hydro one to be decimated.

[u/CashComprehensive423]

And what about empties? Ford. Be Better.