Ontario Provincial Budget 2025

The Minister announced the creation of the Protecting Ontario Account, a fund of up to $5 billion designed to provide businesses with critical support to protect jobs, transform businesses and grow strategic sectors of the economy that are facing significant tariff-related business disruptions.  The fund will provide immediate liquidity relief as an emergency backstop for businesses that have exhausted available funding.

There will be deferring select provincially administered taxes for six months from April 1, 2025, to October 1, 2025, to help businesses weather the economic turmoil caused by the impact of Trump tariffs.  This measure will provide about 80,000 businesses and job creators approximately $9 billion worth of cash flow they need to keep workers employed.

To help businesses weather the economic uncertainty, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), starting in 2025, WSIB rates have been reduced to the lowest in half a century, which will save Ontario businesses about $150 million annually.  In addition, WSIB is distributing rebates of $4 billion in surplus funds to safe employers in 2025, reflecting the government’s commitment to fostering a robust and resilient business environment.

In order to protect businesses that rely on a unified rail network for transporting goods and raw materials to customers, Budget 2025 is proposing a new temporary tax credit to support Ontario’s shortline railway industry.  The Ontario Shortline Railway Investment Tax Credit would be a 50 per cent refundable corporate income tax credit available for qualifying shortline railways on eligible track maintenance and rehabilitation expenditures in Ontario.  This investment tax credit would provide Ontario’s shortline railway industry with an estimated $23 million in income tax support over three years.

Budget 2025 is extending the investment in the Ontario Automotive Modernization Program (O-AMP) and the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) through a total investment of $85 million.  The OVIN program supports regional technology development sites, research and development partnerships, and incubator projects for automotive and mobility small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  The O-AMP is designed to support Ontario’s SME automotive parts suppliers upgrade outdated equipment and adopt new tools and technologies to innovate their product lines and continue to modernize their processes.

The Ontario Government will be investing $20 million in 2025–26 to mobilize new training and support centres, formerly known as action centres, providing immediate transition supports for more laid-off workers, including those impacted by U.S. tariffs.  It will also create the new Trade-Impacted Communities Program that will provide up to $40 million in grants, starting in 2025–26, which are flexible and tailored to the needs of individual communities and local industries.  This funding will support projects that help communities respond to trade disruptions, as well as large-scale strategic initiatives that enable and transform key sectors and industrial clusters to help businesses grow, find new markets and investments, and diversify their supply chains.

In The Ontario government introduced the Protect Ontario through Free Trade within Canada Act to unlock free trade and labour mobility within Canada.

On April 16, 2025, Premier Ford began the process by signing free trade agreements with Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick.  On May 15, 2025 Premier Ford signed a further deal with Manitoba.

Budget 2025 calls for an investment of $50 million over three years starting in 2025–26 to create the Ontario Together Trade Fund.   The fund will focus on expanding interprovincial trade by supporting investments in infrastructure, equipment and processes to enhance competitiveness in the face of U.S. tariffs.