When Ontario released its first pandemic budget last year it was optimistically called an action plan to “protect, support, recover.”
As we know all too well, months later we’re still deep in the midst of the protect and support part of the health and economic crisis brought on by COVID-19. So Ontario’s second pandemic budget, delivered on Wednesday, is now being touted as the fiscal blueprint to finish the job.
But on the recovery piece in particular Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have missed an opportunity to build a stronger, more inclusive economy better able to withstand future shocks.
It’s all the more disappointing because the government sees some of the problems facing Ontario quite clearly. It just can’t bring itself to land on the right solutions.
Take job losses, for example.
“Women in particular have been disproportionately affected — and it’s clear we are experiencing a ‘she-cession’,” said Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy.
Employment among men is down 3.3 per cent but nearly 5 per cent for women, according to the finance ministry.
The government’s solution?
The budget unveils plans to “establish a task force to advise the government on how to address the unique and disproportionate economic barriers women face.”
It’s ridiculous — the government already knows what to do. It should be making meaningful changes for women and other vulnerable workers now, not delaying action with a task force that will repeat what has been said before.
As the minister himself said: “Nearly every economist I speak with says making child care more affordable is one of the keys to ensuring a robust recovery from COVID-19 — not to mention a vital factor in creating the growth necessary for long-term prosperity.”
So why, having said that, does his budget not do more to increase access to affordable child care spaces?
The government is temporarily boosting its child care tax credit by 20 per cent, which it says will put another $250 in the average family’s pocket.
That increase — and the entire tax credit program — does not pay for full-time licensed child care. And that’s what’s needed for women to fully participate in the workforce and create the economic growth Ontario will need if it ever hopes to return to balanced books. (The budget forecasts that as likely around 2029-30.)
The government’s own budget example of a single mom making $40,000 and getting $710 — $59 a month — towards her child-care expenses demonstrates that this is babysitting money, not a way to pay for the child-care programs working women desperately need.
What makes this all the more frustrating is that when the pandemic hit the Ford government realized the importance of child care and its vital connection to the economy. It swiftly reopened child-care centres for essential workers. It even made them free for parents.
Yet now it’s back to promoting the fallacy of giving parents “choice” through a tax credit rather than funding the real child care services that Ontario’s families — and the economy — need.
That’s not the only pandemic lesson the government has failed to learn.
On paid sick days, which fall neatly into both parts of the 2021 budget title — “protecting people’s heath and our economy” — there’s not a word.
Ontario’s labour laws have fallen to such depths that the Ford government had to recall the legislature when the pandemic hit to pass a law so workers couldn’t be fired just for being sick.
The budget should have addressed paid sick days and the other gaping holes in worker protections that have left so many Ontario workers, including the low-paid essential workers who kept the economy going during this terrible pandemic year, so precariously employed.
“We’re pulling out all the stops to support everyone,” Bethlenfalvy said. But for all the big numbers in his budget, that’s still not the case.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2021/03/24/the-ford-governments-second-pandemic-budget-is-another-missed-opportunity.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a02&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_49562
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