Everything a young Ontarian should know about Ontario Budget 2017
Here are some details in the 2017 Ontario budget that may affect you if you're a young person in Ontario.
A whole suite of OSAP reforms take effect in September
The big-ticket item in the 2017 Ontario budget is free prescription drug coverage for everyone aged 24 and under.
And young Ontarians will be able to reap much of the reforms to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) revealed in last year's budget in the upcoming academic year.
Here are some other details that may affect you if you're a young person in Ontario:
- Everyone aged 24 and under, regardless of family income, will have free prescription drug coverage.
- Recent graduates can wait until they earn $35,000 a year, versus the previous benchmark of $25,000, before they begin to repay the provincial portion of their student loans, beginning in 2018.
- If students have a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), it will no longer affect the OSAP funding they receive.
- There will be 24,000 new child-care spaces opening this year.
- The province is authorizing the City of Toronto to implement a hotel and Airbnb tax.