Essex MPP Leardi details 2025 Ontario Budget

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By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Essex MPP Anthony Leardi (PC) is supporting the 2025 Ontario Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario. It was presented recently before provincial parliament considers adoption in the coming weeks.

“This budget is specifically designed because of [US President] Donald Trump and the chaos that Donald Trump is causing with trade across the board,” Leardi said.

“Donald Trump has thrown a wrench into everybody’s plans. The whole world is reeling from this adjustment in the world trading order. We are not backing down. We are going to protect Ontario, we are going to protect Ontario workers and businesses, and we are going to come out the other end stronger than before.”

The 2025 Ontario Budget responds to that matter, and to ensure there are no new taxes.

Keeping taxes at par at the provincial-level is something Leardi said he has heard loud and clear from constituents. He has sent a flyer out to every household in the riding, asking constituents to rank government initiatives in order of importance to them.

“The response was absolutely overwhelming,” Leardi said. “The number one thing people appreciated the most was no new taxes. And, that is something I personally championed in the Legislature. I even made a very brief public statement about it in the legislature, telling the Premier and the Minister of Finance Essex County wants no new taxes.”

He was glad the 2025 Ontario Budget reflected that wish and that “I was part of the crusade to make sure that that happens again.”

In speaking of some of the highlights Leardi sees in the 2025 Ontario Budget, and how it will benefit the local economy, he noted the province is trying to beat California wines.

“Wine is already over taxed,” he noted, explaining there are regular taxes and additional taxes on alcohol. “We are starting to lower those taxes, because we want to specifically…beat California wines out of the Ontario market.”

According to the budget, the mark-up rates applicable to wine-based ready-to-drink products that do not have an alcohol-by-volume content of greater than 7.1 percent would be reduced from 60.6/64.6 percent to 48 percent.

The mark-up rates applicable to spirit-based ready-to-drink products that do not have an alcohol-by-volume content greater than 7.1 percent would be reduced from 68.5/96.7 per cent to 48 percent.

The basic mark-up rates applied by the LCBO to certain wine-based and spirit-based ready-to-drink beverages would be reduced, effective August 1, 2025.

Another portion of the Budget that Leardi sees as good for the local economy and for Ontario is that agreements are being signed for inter-provincial trade.

“Most Canadians are not aware there are barriers to trade between provinces, and the Premier initiated a crusade to tear down those inter-provincial trade barriers and buy Canadian where that may [happen].”

That means, Leardi explained, more good news for the local wine industry, because now the region will be able to export its products to other provinces that have agreed to do the same for Ontario.

Leardi noted that new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised interprovincial free-trade by July 1. He believes that all came about because of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s leadership and insistence that this needs to be done.

As part of the 2025 Ontario Budget, the province plans to invest $500M to create a new Critical Minerals Processing Fund that will help unleash the potential of the province’s mineral sector by attracting investments in critical mineral processing capacity in the province. This will help ensure minerals mined in Ontario will be processed in Ontario, by Ontario workers.

Leardi noted this news ties into the Windsor-Essex region indirectly, as minerals – such as nickel and copper – are primary minerals needed for batteries. “We don’t want to ship the nickel and the copper outside of Ontario to be processed and then have to re-import it to put it into our electric vehicles.”

That goes for other valuable, critical minerals, as well, Leardi said.

“This is all part of linking the mineral wealth of the north with the manufacturing might of the south. This is a great opportunity for us to build a ‘Made in Ontario’ supply chain…so no one outside of Ontario can threaten our automotive industry.”

Ontario already has a multimillion-dollar water and wastewater infrastructure fund in place. Leardi noted early this year, Kingsville was successful in getting $7.4M as part of that funding to build the West Side Collector Road. This project will extend Heritage Road northward around 1.85KM, from Main Street to Road 2 West. It will allow around 3000 more homes to be built in Kingsville, on the westside of the downcore core, and open up growth for the commercial industry, as well.

Through the 2025 Ontario Budget that program was relaunched. “I want my local municipalities to apply again, so we can get a few more million dollars out of this fund for infrastructure projects, because that’s the best way to build homes,” he said.

Another item being expanded under the 2025 Ontario Budget is for primary care in Ontario. In February of 2024, the Essex County Nurse Practitioner Led-Clinic was awarded over $424,525 from the Ontario government to expand its services into Kingsville. That created the opportunity to allow up to 1200 new clients to get rostered in Kingsville.

That program is being continued under the new budget.

According to the budget, on January 27, 2025, the government announced an investment of $1.8B for Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan, which aims to connect everyone in Ontario to a family doctor or primary care team within four-years.

It adds that Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan will implement a broad series of initiatives that will close the gap for people in need of primary care by 2029, including: creating and expanding more than 305 additional primary care teams and supporting primary care infrastructure renewal for the expansion of eligible team-based models.

“My goal, going forward, is to get another 1200 linked to primary care in Essex County,” Leardi said.

He said that 90% of Ontarians have a primary care provider – be it a doctor or nurse practitioner. “We want to reach the remaining 10%, and we are going to do that over the next four to five years,” Leardi commented.

Another item proposed in the 2025 Ontario Budget is to make the province’s gasoline and fuel tax cuts permanent. This measure would save households, on average, about $115 per year, information from the Province estimates. That is the 10-cent per litre cut at the pump.

“That makes everything cheaper,” Leardi said. “Everything gets transported by truck in Ontario. Every time you lower the cost of gasoline, that has the effect of controlling costs and making sure that costs stay under control, so that things are more affordable.”

Through its Budget announcement, the Province notes Ontario’s 2024–25 deficit is projected to be $6.0 billion, $3.8 billion lower than the outlook published in the 2024 Budget.

Reducing the deficit is important, Leardi described, because money has to be spent to pay interest on debt. “When we balance the budget in two-years, that means our interest payments are going to go down. Every dollar we save in interest payments is a dollar we can put into healthcare.”

Education spending, Leardi added, remains about at the same levels as it has for years. He explained the increase in the Education Budget is around 22-23% since 2018, which he said is exactly almost the rate of inflation.

The big investment in the area in terms of education in the past few years include a brand-new school in Amherstburg, Kingsville, and LaSalle, which was also expanded.

“That contrasts very sharply with the Liberal record. They shut down Western Secondary, which was the only skilled trade school in Essex County. And, they shutdown Harrow High School, which was the only high school in Harrow.”

Leardi anticipates the budget will be passed within the next two-to-three weeks.

Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky (NDP) shared a statement regarding the 2025 Ontario Budget, noting she believed it “missed the opportunity to build a stronger Ontario for all.”

She noted the budget “delivers little hope and no reassurance.”

It is her understanding “we’re seeing more cuts to Children, Community, and Social Services,” the Ministry for which she is Shadow Minister. She also noted it lacked a real plan to address Intimate Partner Violence and support for victims and survivors. In addition, she stated there was no plan to address the housing crisis.

For more information on the budget, log onto: budget.ontario.ca/2025/index.html

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