By Jessica Smith Cross and David Hains

There was an Easter egg hidden in this year's budget: yet-unannounced tax cuts nestled into the fiscal forecasts.

It was the smart kids at Ontario's Financial Accountability Office (FAO) who found them. They said in a recent report that the government's fiscal projections for the next two years have revenue projections lower than what would be expected from the projected economic growth, suggesting both personal income and corporate tax breaks worth a combined $1.4 billion next year.

QP Briefing asked Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy about it Friday: is the government planning to implement these tax cuts?

"That remains to be seen," he replied. He went on to thank the FAO for their work in financial transparency and stressed that his government has also been transparent, in releasing a path to balance with fiscal anchors, something that has allowed the credit rating agencies to affirm the province's status despite its unprecedented borrowing.

If the Ford government is planning to announce new tax cuts in next year's budget, it will be just a few months ahead of the election scheduled for June 2 and while the province will remain in a deficit position, seeking to curb spending.

Randy Robinson, the Ontario director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, recently wrote a column warning against those potential tax cuts.

"This is troubling," Robinson wrote of the FAO's find. "Any move to cut taxes next year would be an unmitigated disaster."

Robinson noted the FAO also found that Ontario program spending is set to decline by $1,281 per person by the end of the decade and argued that what Ontarians need is more program spending on schools and health care, not tax cuts.

Asked about the wisdom of cutting taxes while trying to cut spending and reduce the deficit, Bethlenfalvy replied that his eye is on the long-term and providing the government with the resources it needs. But he also noted that Ontario has recently begun outperforming economic forecasts, including those in the budget.

"I'm an optimist," he said. "A glass-half-full person. And I think that the economic recovery and the ingenuity and innovation and ability of many Ontarians to spend money and support their local businesses will really help us achieve our goals."

And tax cuts have been among the government's goals. For example, Doug Ford's 2018 campaign platform included a personal income tax break for the middle class that has not yet been implemented. Ford had promised to reduce the rate of the second provincial income tax bracket to 7.32 per cent from 9.15 per cent, on income from $43,000 to $86,000, something it said at the time would cost about $2.26 billion a year when fully in place.

It ‘remains to be seen’ if unannounced tax breaks will be implemented: Ontario finance minister

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