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Ontario Revenues May Be Growing Faster Than Last Year, Ford Says

Ontario Revenues May Be Growing Faster Than Last Year, Ford Says

(Bloomberg) -- Ontario’s revenues may be growing at an even a faster pace than last fiscal year, said Doug Ford, premier of Canada’s most populous province.

“Last year we saw C$1.3 billion ($980 million) more in revenues, this year we will see the same growth or even better,” Ford said after an interview on BNN Bloomberg in Toronto on Thursday, attributing the gains to personal and business tax cuts.

The world’s largest sub-sovereign debt issuer cut its deficit forecast in November to C$9 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, down from a previous projection of C$10.3 billion. The government is pushing to eliminate Ontario’s budget shortfall by fiscal 2023-2024. Finance Minister Rodney Phillips is scheduled to release an update of the province’s economic performance later Wednesday.

Ford said on TV that Ontario is “booming,” creating about 76% of all jobs in the country. Ontario’s unemployment rate ended 2019 at 5.3%, just shy of a three-decade low, according to federal government data.

Bombardier Opportunity

“The biggest problem right now? We need more people,” he said. “We need 250,000 more people from around the world to come here to Ontario.”

Separately, Ford said Bombardier Inc. could benefit from Ontario’s C$28.5 billion in transportation infrastructure plans.

“We are putting out the largest transportation infrastructure project in North America,” said Ford, answering a question about possible measures to support the company as well as the jobs based in the province. “We have a good opportunity to keep Bombardier moving forward in quite a few different areas.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Esteban Duarte in Toronto at eduarterubia@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Thorpe, Steven Frank

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