TORONTO – A tax-free $200 rebate for all Ontario taxpayers: Prime Minister Doug Ford announced it today (see the video here), also anticipating that those with children will get more. “Because we know that children are more expensive, parents will receive an additional $200 for each child,” Ford said. That could mean a family of five with three children under the age of 18 could receive $1,000. 

“These $200 checks will make a big difference for families across the province – checks arriving at the start of the new year” Ford said. “Detaching” these checks will cost the Province of Ontario $3 billion. The premier said that his government decided to provide this “bonus” because of the “high costs of the federal carbon tax and interest rates” and said the Province can afford to do so because inflation has produced more tax revenue provincial sales tax and also due to the federal government’s recent changes to capital gains tax.

But let’s see the requirements required to receive the rebate: be at least 18 years old at the end of 2023; be a resident of Ontario on December 31, 2023; have filed their 2023 tax and benefit return by December 31, 2024; not be bankrupt or imprisoned in 2024.

Ford’s move comes in the context of the possibility that the premier could call provincial elections next year, bringing them forward by a year (they would be scheduled for June 2026). The inevitable question, therefore, is: are you perhaps trying to “buy” votes with this “bonus”? No, the premier stressed, reiterating that his government has been trying to help people keep more money in their pockets since “Day One”, while instead “the Liberals and NDP will reimpose taxes that have been cut and will probably add new taxes”.

In the pic above, Prime Minister Doug Ford during today’s announcement (screenshot from the video on CPAC’s YouTube channel)