TORONTO -- Ontario's first balanced budget since the recession is set to be delivered April 27.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced the date today in a speech to the Empire Club of Canada, saying that gives the government room to make new investments.
Even though Ontario's Liberal government has managed to knock down a deficit that was at one point more than $20 billion, the province's debt continues to grow.
It has swelled to more than $300 billion and in last year's budget interest on that debt was more than $11 billion and was growing twice as quickly as any program spending area.
The Progressive Conservatives have accused the government of artificially balancing the budget, through the use of one-time money from asset sales and the use of a reserve fund.
Sousa has said he intends to put measures in the budget to address the red-hot housing market in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. He is set to meet with federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Toronto Mayor John Tory on Tuesday to discuss housing in the region.
