Five things to know about that $200 Ontario cheque in your mailbox

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Promised by Premier Doug Ford last fall, $200 cheques are now landing in mailboxes across Ontario. Heather Rivers reports on what you need to know about them.

THE BIG PICTURE

In a surprise move late in October, Ford announced the $200 payments – roughly $3 billion in total – would go out early in the new year to help families cope with higher costs including from the federal carbon tax. The announcement came a day ahead of the Progressive Conservative government’s fall economic statement, a kind of mini-budget, and at a time when Ford appeared to be toying with calling an early Ontario election. “That’s money that families can use to pay off their credit card after the holidays, to buy a winter coat for their kids, or to cover the cost of gassing up the family car to make up for the cost of the Liberal carbon tax,” said Ford, who denied any election link. Unimpressed critics said the move smacked of political gimmickry and would do little to address the affordability crisis many Ontarians are feeling. 

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WHO GETS THE MONEY?

Essentially, almost every man, woman and child in Ontario is getting a $200 cheque or the equivalent of it. To qualify, you must be 18 or older, have lived in Ontario as of Dec. 31 and filed a 2023 tax return. Those who went bankrupt or were incarcerated are not eligible. Families who received the Canada Child Benefit will receive separate cheques for each child under age 18.

THE TIMING

When the payments were announced, there was speculation Ford might trigger an early 2025 election while Justin Trudeau was still heading a minority Liberal government in Ottawa. Two big changes have since happened. First, Donald Trump was elected and has now taken office as U.S. president. He’s vowing to slap hefty tariffs on Canadian imports that Ontario estimates could cost it up to 500,000 jobs. Second, Trudeau is on his way out as Liberal leader and prime minister, with his replacement to be chosen in early March followed soon after by a federal election if, as widely expected, the government either falls or the new prime minister sends voters to the polls. No longer merely coy about a possible early election, Ford has since been openly mulling one. Earlier this week, he said he needs a mandate to deal with the fallout for Ontario of four years of a second Trump presidency.

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THE POLITICS

From allegations the PCs are trying to buy voters, to ridicule that even the super-wealthy will pocket the money because the payments aren’t based on income, the opposition parties at Queen’s Park have attacked the $200 rebate program. “The premier is attempting to bribe Ontarians with their own money,” Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie said last fall. Ford and his finance minister have defended the mass mail-out of money as affordable relief for Ontarians amid higher-than-expected provincial revenue.    

DEJA VU

Ford’s government isn’t the first to send or try to send money back to taxpayers in one-time payments. In November, Trudeau announced a plan to send working Canadians making up to $150,000 a $250 cheque this spring. That would have cost the feds $4.6 billion. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pushed to get the program expanded to retirees and others, but that failed to win support and the NDP would not back the program as proposed. In 2000, then-premier Mike Harris’s Progressive Conservative government sent Ontarians $200 cheques. Then-premier Ralph Klein in Alberta did the same in 2006, with his Conservatives sending out $400 rebates from a budget surplus.

With files by the Canadian Press and National Post

hrivers@postmedia.com

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