Ontario’s new budget to cover tuition for post-secondary students

Implementation of the Ontario Student Grant will begin in the 2017-18 calendar year and full implementation of the tuition billing reforms will take place in 2018-19.

Students from families with incomes of $83,000 or less will receive non-repayable grants to help cover living expenses.

Under the new system, tuition will be free for students from Ontario families with incomes up to $50,000 who attend any college or university in Canada.

“The Province remains on track to generate $5.7 billion over time from maximizing the value of government-owned assets – $2.6 billion higher than originally projected in the 2014 Budget”, a release reads.

The provincial debt is projected to be $308 billion, up from $296 billion previous year.

Students may also still receive federal grants or loans, which are unaffected by the Liberals’ changes and would have to be repaid. Expecting to soon rake in $1.9 billion annually, the Liberals are already drawing up blueprints to spend it on a centrally engineered, green-tinted industrial plan, with “priority investments” to be made in “clean technology” and “innovation funding”. So it’s doesn’t look like you’ll be losing the carry forward if you had these credits from prior years. Sousa also announced he is scrapping the little-used $85 million per year Healthy Homes Renovation Tax credit next January, which proved more helpful to the well-off than the poor.

Industries with high emissions and facing global competition, such as cement, would get free allowances until 2020 when the government will review the program. For homeowners, this will likely mean a natural gas bill increase of about $5 per month, based on the current price of carbon. Sousa declined to say when the next tranche of Hyrdo One shares would be offered. The Ontario government is making it more affordable to go to university and college.

But there’s a cost to convenience – wine taxes will increase by an average of 10 cents a 750 ml bottle. Starting in the 2017-18 school year, the province will create a new grant – called the Ontario Student Grant.

Students will get a financial boost, while smokers, drinkers and drivers will feel the pinch from the Ontario budget.

“There are three things we wanted to see in the cap-and-trade plan and frankly we didn’t see it in this budget”, said Horwath, referring to the need for greater transparency, breaks for low-income Ontarians and northerners, and an effective climate-change strategy.

“The fact we’ve seen the debt-to-GDP ration escalate to (nearly) 40 per cent, is something everyone in Ontario should be concerned about”, said PC Leader Patrick Brown, adding the amount the Liberals plan to add to the debt suggests the books won’t actually be balanced as planned.