FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

23 September 2026

QUEEN’S PARK, ON — Today, John Fraser, Interim Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, issued the following statement in response to the Financial Accountability Office’s 2026 spending plan reviews:

Ontario’s independent financial watchdog has spoken, and the verdict is the same in every report: Doug Ford’s budget does not pay for the level of services Ontarians need.

In education, it’s Back to the Future, starring Doug Ford as Mike Harris. The FAO projects the slowest three-year growth rate in education spending since 1995–96 to 1998–99. We all remember those years. The Harris years were some of the darkest years in Ontario’s schools.

We know that class sizes are too big, special education has been starved, and the mental health crisis in our schools has gone unaddressed. Yet this government continues to shortchange children and families.

The FAO projects that education spending will grow by an average of 0.6 per cent a year. It would take 2.1 per cent just to keep things as they are. In 2023–24, Ontario’s school boards spent $15,247 per student, well-below the national average. Quebec’s school boards spent $19,323 per student.

We know hospitals are already cutting at an alarming rate. Hamilton Health Sciences has just cut more than 400 staff. We know the government has starved our colleges and universities, driving students and families further into debt. And support for our most vulnerable is moving back toward the dark days of Mike Harris.

Despite increasing the debt more than any other Premier in Ontario’s history, now reaching $600B, Doug Ford still managed to screw everything up

While this Premier is focused on private jets, fancy hotel stays, Ferris wheels and luxury spas, families are going to pay more and get less from the schools, hospitals and services they count on.