Doug Ford is back to work at Queen’s Park, where he’s turned Ontario into a ‘have not’ province

In the 88 days leading up to the 2018 Ontario election, Doug Ford had convinced millions of voters that he would “end hallway healthcare”. 

Today, the number of patients being treated in hospital hallways has reached record levels, while one in five Ontario hospitals with an ER or urgent care centre had unplanned shutdowns this year—the worst ever for such closures in the province’s history. The Ontario Medical Association reported that as of 2023, 2.5 million residents across the province could not find a family doctor and by next year the number would reach 4.4 million, or approximately one out of every four people in Ontario, where 3,500 family doctors are needed immediately to fill a dangerous gap that puts lives at risk. 

During his victory speech on June 7, 2018, Ford declared, with arms raised, that “An era of economic growth and prosperity the likes of which this province has never seen before” had arrived.

Today, home ownership is out of reach for a record number of Ontarians. Data from 2024 show the average Toronto household spends 71 percent of its income on housing costs—up from 50 percent a decade ago. Rental prices for 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments have jumped by nearly 40 percent across the board, and unemployment rates in many parts of the province are now at crisis levels: as of last month, according to Statistics Canada, 9 percent of employable Toronto residents were out of work; in Windsor the rate hit 11.4 percent; compared to 6.2 percent in Winnipeg, 6.4 percent in Vancouver and 6.7 percent in Montreal. 

Last year economic activity from “goods-producing industries” declined in Ontario by 2.3 percent. Of all the provinces only B.C. had a worse performance, (-2.9 percent). New Brunswick saw a 0.4 percent decline and Quebec’s output dropped by 0.8 percent; all other provinces produced an increase. 

Statistics Canada highlighted Ontario’s troubled manufacturing sector as the main problem, and that was before the potentially devastating impacts of U.S. tariffs, which are now causing major shocks across the province’s huge auto-manufacturing sector, for example.

During his 2018 victory speech, newly-crowned premier Doug Ford promised Ontario will become “the greatest place on earth to live, to do business and to raise a family."

(YouTube)

Food bank usage, an indicator of unemployment, has reached levels never before seen in the province. Feed Ontario data show more than 1 million people visited food banks last year—a 97 percent increase since Ford promised his government “will always put you first”.

The unemployment rate for Ontario at the time sat at 5.6 percent. It is now 7.9 percent, the highest in a decade.

According to the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario’s 2024 Labour Market report, the province had the second slowest employment growth in the country last year, and the third highest unemployment rate. 

“We've actually lost more jobs in construction, because the housing market is so weak right now,” former Ontario chief economist, Brian Lewis, told The Pointer.

In 2024, Ontario lost nearly 1,300 residential construction jobs (a 2.1% percent drop from 2023), setting Ford even further behind after promising to get 1.5 million new homes built by 2031.

“To me, the key takeaway is that you know, the economy is going to continue to struggle,” Lewis says. He points to the recent economic shocks created by the Republican administration south of the border, “but I've been more concerned of a long protracted period of very slow economic growth or minimal economic growth, as we try to adjust to what's a rapidly changing world around us.” 

He believes there is a 50/50 chance Ontario could be in a recession soon; or, technically, might be in one right now.

“The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of a decline in real gross domestic product. So that happened…the first quarter already happened in the second calendar quarter of 2025, Ontario's real GDP declined 6 percent… . It's not clear whether we're going to make two quarters in a row.”

Ford, meanwhile, continues to make promises and use political spin to avoid any real scrutiny of the disastrous leadership that has led the province down this darkening path. 

This is evident in the titles of his keystone pieces of legislation. 

In June, Ford introduced Bill 5, the “Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act”. 

It has done anything but.

The provincial debt has reached a staggering $452 billion, the largest of any sub-national government in the world. Last year the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in an effort to warn Ontarians of Ford’s failed economic policies, sent a truck with a giant digital “debt clock” to 17 Ontario municipalities. 

Last year the Canadian Taxpayers Federation travelled across the province with its Ontario "debt clock" truck. The province's debt has since reached more than $450 billion.

(YouTube)

In 2024, “Premier Doug Ford will have added more than $86 billion to the provincial debt”, the fiscal watchdog reported. 

“The Ford government is spending more money on debt interest than post-secondary education,” Jay Goldberg, CTF’s Ontario Director, said, warning that current debt and debt finance levels (more than $15 billion currently) would cripple younger generations for years to come, worsening the affordability crisis.  

In September, Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office warned the provincial deficit is projected to grow to $12 billion for the 2025/26 fiscal year, despite Ford’s repeated claims that he would rein in his own runaway spending. 

Ontarians might wonder where the money is going: budgets for colleges, universities, schools and healthcare have been slashed; highway and transit projects have been mired in delays and lawsuits; while other big-ticket promises Ford has made, such as a tunnel beneath a Toronto section of the 401 highway, would cost far more than the already stretched government can afford.

The extent of financial mismanagement under Ford’s leadership was partly revealed in a scathing Ontario Auditor General report last year. Of the almost $70 billion in projects underway during Ford’s time as Premier, the AG probed three of them: a long-term care facility was delayed and 27 percent over budget; an expansion of the 427 highway was a year behind schedule and 15 percent over budget (at the time); and, perhaps most alarmingly, construction of the Mississauga Hospital project, which had not even begun, was already more than $4 billion over budget, threatening the approved plan. 

A main cause of the delays and cost overruns was Ford’s transferring of government responsibilities to the companies who were awarded the lucrative contracts. Taxpayers are now on the hook.

September’s report from the Financial Accountability Office brought more troubling news about Ontario’s sputtering economy under Ford’s leadership.  

“Elevated interest rates weighed on the province’s highly indebted households, prompting spending restraint, while business activity remained subdued. Residential investment declined for the third consecutive year as high borrowing costs discouraged new home construction and housing sales activity. Temporary auto plant shutdowns for retooling and soft demand for motor vehicles in the United States weakened Ontario’s exports in 2024,” the dire analysis highlighted. 

Since then, Stellantis has announced it will be shifting production of the next generation Jeep Compass, previously planned for Brampton, to the United States, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

With Ontario nearing a possible economic recession, the decision making of Premier Doug Ford has left the province in a precarious financial position.

(The Pointer files) 

Transportation planning has been one of the most glaring failures under Ford, costing the economy billions in lost productivity and job losses. It was estimated that last year alone, the cost of time loss due to congestion in Ontario was almost $44 billion, and headlines have been filled with news about celebrities and tourists visiting Toronto, only to be turned off by the embarrassing state of transportation in the region. 

Ford’s answer: more highways.

Despite reams of data and research by experts that show his highway plans are not supported by any of the completed studies (which recommend investments in public transit and more dense, community oriented housing plans) Ford is plowing ahead with projects such as the 413 Highway. He has failed to provide a cost for the plan, and critics have accused him of building the 400-series roadway only to open up sprawl development opportunities for powerful builders who already bought up lands along the protected Greenbelt, which will be put at risk. Economic losses from more lost productivity due to stretched out commute times and even worse congestion created by “induced demand” have not stopped Ford from moving forward, despite a report done for the Ontario government that showed the 413 is not needed and will do nothing to help congestion (the report was removed from the province’s website shortly after he won the election in 2018).

The Opposition NDP have recently demanded accountability, after revealing that under Ford the provincial government is currently facing $8.2 billion in legal claims for allegedly mismanaged transit projects, which seem like an afterthought for the governing PCs.

Meanwhile, Bill 5, the “Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act” is being challenged in court, a result of Ford’s failure to properly consult Indigenous groups and potential PC overreach that violates the Charter. 

Since receiving royal assent in June, Indigenous communities, civil and environmental groups have launched legal challenges against the legislation.

University of Toronto political science professor Randy Besco told The Pointer that if the process is not accepted by affected groups, it shortens project timelines in name only, leading to protests, resistance, and lawsuits that ultimately delay, or even lead to the cancellation of major economic plans. 

“It's important when the government wants to shorten timeline, reduce delays, they are still able to get social licence from the local people who are affected. And that the process holds up in court. If it gets struck down, then this is not actually gonna improve the economy because nothing's going to get built.”

First in 2024, then again this year, the PCs introduced the “More Convenient Care Act”. The omnibus legislation is meant to reform Ontario’s healthcare sector and improve access to hospitals and primary care—access that has only gotten more restrictive under Ford. 

According to Statistics Canada, as of 2023, Ontario had only 2.23 hospital beds per 1,000 people, down from 2.25 in 2019, placing the province 16 percent behind the rest of Canada and 84 percent below the international median, based on the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) health data. Meanwhile, the province faces a staggering hospital staffing shortfall of 34,292 full-time employees, including a shortfall of 15,396 inpatient nurses, 1,909 emergency room nurses, and 12,133 vacancies in essential support roles such as food and sanitation services, as reported by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). According to Statistics Canada, hospital job vacancies have skyrocketed by 534 percent since 2015, causing Ontario hospitals to struggle to retain employees due to inadequate wages and increasing burnout—a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Figures shared by the Ontario College of Family Physicians in 2023, indicate Ontarians are losing family doctors at an unprecedented rate. From March 2020 to March 2022, nearly 20,000 people lost their family doctor. The OCFP reported that the most severely impacted are those living in racialized communities.

The disconnect between Ford’s claims and the on-the-ground-reality is perhaps most evident in the province’s housing market. His vow to end Ontario’s housing crisis has led to numerous pieces of legislation that have gutted environmental policies designed to protect vulnerable wildlife and greenspaces, and triggered the Greenbelt land grab scandal, currently being investigated by the RCMP. 

Meanwhile, the PC government has been silent on the much-awaited second review of the Greenbelt, with roughly $9.6 billion in annual economic activity at stake. 

Despite numerous plans and omnibus pieces of legislation introduced by Doug Ford and the PC government meant to fast-track housing in Ontario, housing starts have plunged to the lowest levels in a decade.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer files)

In June 2019, Bill 108 promised “More Homes, More Choice” (the title of the Act); in November 2022, Bill 23 was given the official name, “More Homes Built Faster Act”. The PCs doubled down in June 2024 with Bill 185, the “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act”. Then in June, before Ford shuttered the Legislature for an extended summer recess, Bill 17, the “Protecting Ontario by Building Smarter and Faster Act” was the latest move. 

According to an August analysis by RBC, which declared “Canada isn’t in a housing starts slump—Ontario is”, the province’s six-month average for housing starts has fallen to the lowest level in a decade. Ontario’s own 2024 figures show just 94,753 starts, well below the PCs' ambitious goals of 125,000 starts for 2024 and 150,000 this year.

While their housing plans are falling short of expectations, the PCs are promising massive capital investments they claim will “unleash” the economy.

After passing Bill 71, the Building More Mines Act, in 2023, Bill 5 has now been pushed forward as a sweeping mining and development plan. Ford claims it protects against tariffs through "special economic zones" where provincial laws and municipal by-laws, including environmental and public-participation rules, can be overlooked and are subject to the “opinion” of Ford’s Cabinet.

The legislation grants the government sweeping authority to fast-track costly development projects such as Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass, the Ring of Fire mining region and Ontario Place (which Ford is already under fire for due to the deal with Thermea Group, accused of misrepresenting its track record and financial standing to secure a 95-year lease).

“The way capital projects work for the government is you borrow the money up front and you spend the money, the cash up front. So it goes to your debt, because you borrow the money,” Lewis explains. “But on an accrual basis, you don't start expensing it until the asset actually starts getting used. So the concept here is these things don't affect your annual deficit until you actually have the thing built and you start depreciating it. This is pretty much what businesses do, but you're borrowing the money up front. So people are, I think, rightfully paying attention to Ontario's debt, which is growing much faster than you would expect given the modest deficits, because the government is borrowing pretty large amounts of money for the big building program. Some people would be on one hand, you know, building things and investing in infrastructure has a pretty solid economic case. On the other hand, people may be concerned about the amount of money that Ontario is borrowing.”

With the litany of economic problems facing Ford, as Ontario plunges further into provincial “have-not” status, his focus on distracting issues such as speed cameras comes as no surprise to critics who hope the public holds him accountable for the disastrous leadership. 

With Queen’s Park finally back in session, it will be up to Ontarians to stay focussed on Ford’s crumbling economic track record.  

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