Ontario Budget Projects Larger Deficit, Billions for Infrastructure Ahead of Election

Ontario Budget Projects Larger Deficit, Billions for Infrastructure Ahead of Election
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy takes to the podium during a news conference in Toronto on April 28, 2021. The Canadian Press/Chris Young
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TORONTO—Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are veering off a path to balance with an election budget loaded with billions of dollars in hospital, highway, and transit investments.

The document, set to serve as the Tory platform during a campaign expected to kick off next week, has the party projecting Ontario will be $19.9 billion in the red this year—a bigger deficit than the province ran in the first pandemic year. The Progressive Conservatives aren’t planning to balance until 2027-28.