By Anthony Joseph

Ontario’s latest provincial budget paints a troubling picture of priorities, especially for Black and Caribbean communities across the province.

At first glance, it reads as a plan rooted in economic pragmatism, focused on housing, infrastructure and kicking the balancing of books down the road a few years in light of the Trump tariffs.

But a deeper dive reveals gaping holes in equity, inclusion, and capacity-building for marginalized communities. For Caribbean Canadians living in Ontario, the impacts of this budget are profound and far-reaching.

While Premier Doug Ford’s government trumpets investment in skilled trades and infrastructure as the centerpiece of its economic revival, the support systems necessary to ensure that our community can truly benefit are nowhere near sufficient.

The biggest omission? A meaningful investment in post-secondary education, the very pipeline that feeds our presence in key professions and high-paying industries.

Caribbean families have long placed value on education as a gateway to mobility. Yet the Ontario government is starving universities and colleges of resources at a time when they are needed most.

Skilled trades training has seen welcome support, with over a billion dollars pledged to expand the sector. This will help some, particularly younger Caribbean Ontarians entering the workforce.

But skilled trades are only part of the picture. Building engineers, urban planners, architects, IT specialists, and healthcare professionals, careers essential to the infrastructure boom the province hopes to spark, require advanced education. Without funding and access for underrepresented students, we risk being locked out of the very economic recovery our labour has helped build for generations.

This disconnect between funding priorities and demographic need is even starker in the housing sector. Ontario’s target of building 1.5 million homes by 2031 is bold in words, but limp in numbers. The budget predicts just 570,000 housing starts by 2028, far short of the pace needed. It also forecasts a year-over-year decline in housing starts compared to previous estimates, an 18 per cent drop.

For Caribbean families already struggling with housing affordability, gentrification, and displacement, this is alarming.

Affordable housing isn’t just about putting up units. It’s about putting up the right kinds of homes in the right communities, with the right supports.

While the province has earmarked $400 million in new spending for water systems and infrastructure to support housing growth, it’s a drop in the bucket. Spread across hundreds of municipalities, it won’t make a dent in the backlog of housing needs for working-class communities, especially in rapidly developing urban centres like Scarborough, Brampton, and Ajax—areas with large Caribbean populations.

There is no dedicated funding in the budget for anti-poverty strategies or significant investments in social housing. In fact, the word “poverty” doesn’t appear once in the budget documents. This is a stunning omission at a time when food bank usage has skyrocketed and income inequality is surging. Many Caribbean Ontarians, especially seniors, new immigrants, and single-parent households, are at the mercy of these economic pressures.A society that refuses to prioritize poverty reduction only deepens its structural inequalities.

And then there’s climate change. Despite growing concern in our community about environmental justice—how extreme weather, pollution, and infrastructure neglect often disproportionately impact Black and Caribbean neighbourhoods, climate change barely registers in this budget. The only mention is in relation to the government’s sustainable bond program, with no clear policy commitment to green infrastructure, energy efficiency upgrades in low-income housing, or environmental protections in urban developments.

Caribbean Canadians, many of whom are immigrants from island nations already facing climate catastrophe, are acutely aware that this kind of neglect comes with long-term costs.

From an economic standpoint, the government argues that it has tabled a “reasonable” plan under difficult circumstances, with global uncertainty, supply chain issues, and the high Trump tariffs complicating the road to recovery. It’s true that these are unprecedented times. But a budget is a reflection of values, and this one makes clear that the Ford government continues to prioritize business incentives, tax breaks, and political posturing over inclusive growth.

Take, for instance, the government’s decision to make good on its promise to remove tolls on Highway 407 between Pickering and Clarington. This may offer savings for some commuters, but does little for urban residents who depend on public transit.

Meanwhile, development charges remain unresolved. The attempt to standardize them through Bill 17 has yet to materialize in any tangible way, and will require extensive consultations and regulations that won’t be finalized until well after the 2025 construction season is already underway.

Municipalities, many of which host large Caribbean populations, are left in limbo, unable to plan properly and uncertain about how to pay for essential services. In addition, the budget locks in gas tax cuts and proposes deregulation on alcohol pricing, policies with more populist flair than real impact. These are distractions, not solutions.

If the government wants to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and vision, it must invest in people, their education, their housing, and their health, not just roads and ribbon-cuttings.

So where do we go from here?

We need a Caribbean Community Response Plan for provincial budgets. Our elected officials, business leaders, unions, and community organizations must come together to demand a real seat at the table.

That means lobbying for: increased funding to colleges and universities, especially for Black and Caribbean student supports; dedicated investments in affordable housing with targets for racialized and immigrant communities; poverty reduction strategies, including income supports, subsidized transit, and child care access; climate resiliency measures in vulnerable neighbourhoods, from flood protection to green job training; equitable infrastructure investments, not just highways and sprawl, but community centres, libraries, and transit hubs where our people live.

Caribbean Canadians are builders. We helped construct Ontario’s public institutions, industries, and neighbourhoods. We are entrepreneurs, educators, caregivers, and artists. But this budget tells us we’re still not being seen.

Ontario must decide if it will build a future with us or continue building without us.

We hope it chooses the former.

#OntarioBudget #CaribbeanCommunity #BlackVoicesMatter #HousingCrisis #EducationJustice #ClimateJustice #DougFord #CaribbeanCanadians #TheCaribbeanCamera #EquityNow

Anthony Joseph is the publisher of The Caribbean Camera newspaper. He writes on politics, culture, and the intersection of race and democracy in Canada.