Ontario is projecting a $16.9 billion deficit for the current fiscal year, citing ongoing trade tensions with the United States and rising energy prices as major factors contributing to the province’s economic struggles.
The projected deficit is $3.1 billion higher than the $13.8 billion shortfall forecast in the spring budget and $3.9 billion higher than the $13 billion deficit recorded in 2025–26.
The province also pushed back its target for balancing the budget to 2029–30, according to the fall economic statement, which Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy presented at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Oct. 29.
“Ontario continues to be challenged,” Bethlenfalvy wrote in the introduction to the economic statement. “Workers, families and businesses in every corner of the province are feeling the impact of the unwarranted U.S. tariffs and their impacts on Canada, and government finances are not immune.”…