BEAMSVILLE – Today, Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance, released the 2025 Ontario Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario. The 2025 Budget includes measures to protect Ontario workers, businesses and jobs in the face of American tariffs and continued economic uncertainty, with a plan to build an economy that is more resilient and self-reliant. The 2025 Budget furthers the government's goal to transform Ontario into the most competitive place to invest, create jobs and do business in the G7, while investing even more in health care, education and other critical services.
"Our Plan to Protect Ontario builds a strong province and a strong Niagara in the face of American tariffs and global uncertainty." said Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West.
"Ontario's 2025 Budget outlines a vision to make our province the best place in the G7 to invest, create jobs and do business."
"Our government is delivering on our mandate to protect Ontario and help workers and businesses weather the storm, while creating the long-term foundations for a strong, resilient and competitive economy," said Minister Bethlenfalvy.
"We are making the investments in workers, infrastructure and services that will protect Ontario, no matter what."
Ontario's finances are in the strongest position they have been in over a decade, reflected by the two-credit rating upgrades the province received in 2024. The government's plan remains prudent and responsible, and Ontario retains a path to balance the budget by 2027-28. The 2025 Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario moves forward with an ambitious plan to protect Ontario workers, businesses and families by unleashing the economy, getting more shovels in the ground to build infrastructure and putting money back in people’s pockets while delivering better services the people of Ontario can count on.
Highlights include:
- Investing $500 million to create a new Critical Minerals Processing Fund that will help unleash the potential of the province's mineral sector by attracting investments in critical mineral processing capacity here at home, to help ensure that minerals mined in Ontario will be processed in Ontario, by Ontario workers.
- Supporting new resources and opportunities for Indigenous equity partnerships by tripling the total amount of loan guarantees through the Indigenous Opportunities Financing Program to $3 billion and expanding eligibility beyond the electricity sector to include eligible projects in energy, pipelines, mining and critical minerals, resource development and other sectors, to help support investments by Indigenous communities in Ontario's growth. The government is also investing $70 million over four years through the Indigenous Participation Fund to improve capacity for Indigenous communities and organizations in areas of high mineral activity to participate in regulatory processes related to mineral exploration and mine development, as well as providing $10 million over three years to create new scholarship opportunities for First Nations postsecondary students interested in pursuing careers in resource development.
- Supporting businesses that invest in buildings, machinery and equipment for use in manufacturing or processing in Ontario by proposing to enhance and expand the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. The proposed changes would temporarily increase the tax credit rate for Canadian-controlled private corporations from ten percent to fifteen percent, and temporarily expand eligibility for a fifteen percent non-refundable version of the credit to non-Canadian-controlled private corporations, including public corporations, that make eligible investments in the province. These proposed changes would help businesses lower their costs by providing an additional $1.3 billion in support over the next three years.
- Creating the Protecting Ontario Account, a fund of up to $5 billion designed to provide businesses with critical support to protect jobs, transform businesses and grow strategic sectors of the economy that are facing significant tariff-related business disruptions. This fund will provide immediate liquidity relief as an emergency backstop for Ontario businesses that have exhausted available funding.
- Ensuring skilled workers across the province have the training they need to enter rewarding careers in priority sectors by investing an additional $1 billion over the next three years in the Skills Development Fund Capital and Training Streams, bringing the total funding commitment to $2.5 billion. These investments will help organizations deliver better training programs and help upgrade and build new training centres for skilled workers across the province.
- Proposing to make the province's gasoline and fuel tax cuts permanent. This measure would save households, on average, about $115 per year.
- Helping to fight gridlock by permanently removing tolls from the provincially owned Highway 407 East, which is expected to save daily commuters an estimated $7,200 annually.
- Doubling down on the province's efforts to build, including the most ambitious capital plan in Ontario's history with planned investments over the next ten years totalling over $200 billion, including more than $33 billion in 2025-26. Highlights of the ten-year capital plan include nearly $30 billion to support the planning and construction of highway expansion and rehabilitation projects, approximately $61 billion for public transit, approximately $56 billion in health infrastructure and investing over $30 billion to build more schools and child care spaces.
Highlights for Niagara include:
- Working to bring faster, more frequent, two-way, all-day train service between Niagara and the GTA. As part of this work, in April 2025, Metrolinx completed construction at West Harbour GO Station, including new track connecting the station to the main line. These upgrades will provide customers with four more train trips to choose from on weekdays and six new trips on weekends, saving more than 250,000 commuters in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines roughly fifteen minutes per round trip.
- Twinning the Garden City Skyway over the Welland Canal in St. Catharines. This section of the Queen Elizabeth Way is a strategic trade and economic corridor that supports the provinces supply chain by linking the international border crossings at Niagara Falls and Fort Erie with the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
- Supporting a comprehensive plan to unlock the economic potential of Niagara as a tourism driver by bringing new attractions and accommodations. This includes investing more than $35 million over three years to support the Shaw Festival Theatre and redevelopment of the Toronto Power Generating Station into the region's only five-star hotel, which is funded entirely through a more than $200 million private-sector investment. The province is also launching a study to better understand the opportunities to improve air access to Niagara as a key global tourism destination.
- Supporting Niagara's grape and wine sector by extending the VQA Wine Support Program until 2029-30 and enhancing program eligibility to include ice wines, as well as VQA wine sold in convenience stores and on-site winery retail stores. These program enhancements will provide additional support to VQA wine producers, expanding the total support to $84 million in annual support, with total program funding amounting to $420 million over the next five years. In addition, the government is introducing the Wine Boutique Support Program that will provide up to $16.7 million over five years, beginning in 2025-26 until 2029-30, to support a portion of capital expenses for off-site winery retail stores that re-locate into grocery stores, supporting more opportunities for business and convenience for consumers.
- Investing $28.5 million for a new H-135 helicopter to support the Niagara Regional Police Service with increased border patrols and security and enforcement at key points of entry.
- Supporting the construction of six new schools and two school expansions in Niagara, including a new Catholic elementary school in Beamsville.
- Supporting the redevelopment of West Lincoln Memorial Hospital to completion.
- Supporting the new South Niagara Hospital to completion.
"Our province has been faced with challenges before, and we have always emerged stronger and more united as a result," said Minister Bethlenfalvy.
"Today, with the 2025 Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario, we put forward a plan that reflects the government's vision and the mandate we received from the people of this great province to do whatever is necessary to protect Ontario workers, businesses and communities."
Quick Facts:
- Ontario's 2024-25 deficit is projected to be $6.0 billion - $3.8 billion lower than the outlook published in the 2024 Budget.
- The government's plan remains prudent and responsible and retains a path to balance the budget by 2027-28. The government is projecting deficits of $14.6 billion in 2025-26 and $7.8 billion in 2026-27, before returning to a forecasted surplus of $0.2 billion in 2027-28.
- Ontario's economy proved to be resilient in 2024, with real GDP increasing by 1.5 percent. Ontario's real GDP is projected to rise by 0.8 percent in 2025, one percent in 2026, and 1.9 percent in 2027 and 2028.
- Ontario's net debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to be 37.9 percent in 2025-26. Over the medium term, the net debt-to-GDP is forecast to be 38.9 percent in 2026-27, and 38.6 percent in 2027-28.
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