Toronto Region Board of Trade Responds to Ontario’s 2025 Budget

In the face of significant economic damage and investment chilling uncertainty from current and threatened U.S. tariffs, the Board is pleased to see the provincial government advance a range of initiatives to drive productivity, competitiveness, and business growth, including: 

• Continued funding to support the critical buildout of our region’s transportation and energy infrastructure, including an additional $5 billion for the Building Ontario Fund. 
• The creation of a $5 billion Protecting Ontario Account to support economic growth and tariff-impacted businesses. 
• $1.3 billion to expand the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. 
• An additional $270 million Ontario Research Fund to spur innovation in high-productivity industries like life sciences and manufacturing. 
• $500 million to support the growth of Ontario’s critical minerals industry. 
• The extension of the One Fare program for the Toronto region's municipal transit operators, lowering commuter costs, and providing an important support for productivity. We hope that this program will be made permanent in next year’s budget.

These significant resources should bolster the confidence of the business community, laying the groundwork for competitiveness. Businesses will need to swiftly understand how to deploy these new programs and resources to maximize their benefits. 

“Ontario is continuing to invest in North America’s largest transit expansion, building needed highway and energy infrastructure, and working to strengthen high-productivity sectors like manufacturing, life sciences and AI,” said Giles Gherson, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. “Looking forward, to attract the scale of private capital needed here to modernize and grow, there’s little doubt we will need to move faster and go even farther: pursuing bold, coordinated action to lift productivity, attract private investment, and rebuild our competitive edge in a rapidly changing less orderly global economy.” 

The structural headwinds facing Ontario and Canada are strong. Business costs remain too high. Regulatory systems are cumbersome, slow and outdated. Governments at all levels face a scarcity of fiscal resources. The competitive pressure from the United States continues to grow. And the opportunity to gain a global advantage in high-productivity sectors will not wait. We need an economy that can support our ambition. 

That requires national direction. The federal government must now make good on its commitment to transformational change. Only with coordinated, strategic leadership from Ottawa can Ontario and other provinces go further, working in lockstep as a Team Canada committed to long-term growth and prosperity.