Doug Ford poised to send out pre-election cheques to 16 million Ontarians
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll happily take an extra couple hundred from the government if they’d like to send it to me. But you know what would make me even happier? If they would take the $3.2 billion that this pre-election bribery with our own money is estimated to cost and put it into something like healthcare. Or education. Or long-term care. Or legal aid. Or properly funding the Landlord and Tenant Board. Or services for the homeless. Or honest to god affordable housing. Or infrastructure that isn’t some stupid highway. Or harm reduction strategies for drug addicts that might actually work. Or raising benefits for the disabled to an amount approaching realistic. Or…
Premier Doug Ford is poised to send cheques to 16 million Ontarians to offset rising costs as a possible early election looms, the Star has learned.
Sources say the premier’s gambit will be announced in Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s fall economic statement on Oct. 30.
While the precise amount of the rebate cheques is still being finalized, it should be at least $200 for every adult and child in the province.That means it could cost the provincial treasury about $3.2 billion when the cash flows out the door in January or February.
The payments would be tax-free. It could mean an additional $800 in household cash for a family of four at a time of year when paycheques are smaller due to employment insurance deductions and when holiday credit card bills are coming due.
Even though inflation has dropped to 1.6 per cent and mortgage rates are declining, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives privately point to stubbornly high grocery prices and energy and housing expenses as the rationale for the payouts.
The move echoed what former premier Mike Harris’s Tories did in 2000 when then-finance minister Ernie Eves announced $200 “dividend” cheques.
While Eves’ budget that year was in surplus, Bethlenfalvy is not expected to balance the books until after the next election, which is scheduled for June 2026 but could come as soon as this March.