Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp welcomes the recent provincial budget saying Ontario’s on strong financial footing to face the challenging days ahead.
He says the Bay of Quinte region will be well served by the budget, which features more funding for community safety, primary care and education, enhanced manufacturing supports, a new grape strategy, and a commitment to upgrade the 401 through the area.
The budget, released on Thursday, projects a $14.6-billion deficit this year.
Allsopp says the investments in infrastructure healthcare and education will protect Ontario workers in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“But also provides the supports that businesses and individuals are going to need to make sure they’re able to weather this crisis. And that’s why you see, it’s a larger budget than it has been previously. Also we are running a bit of a deficit at $14 billion but that’s largely due to those additional supports that we’re going to make available for businesses.”
The $40 million Trade-Impacted Communities Program, aims to help communities and local businesses disproportionately affected by the trade and tariff uncertainty.
“So what we do through programs like that is we make sure that if there’s no one making a product that we need for part of our supply chain, that we can encourage businesses to maybe open up a different line of production. Maybe shift some units over to start making some of those things, like tin cans, that we are going to need and that will be an important one for our area as well.”
About 28.5% of the Quinte region’s GDP comes from manufacturing exports to the U.S.
He adds the budget, which projects a $14.6-billion deficit this year, also features more funding for community safety, primary care and education, enhanced manufacturing supports, a new grape strategy, and a commitment to upgrade Highway 401 through the area.
