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.