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Language: en-CA

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Hello, thank you for joining&nbsp;
us for the next few minutes.&nbsp;

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With the release of the 2025 Ontario&nbsp;
Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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or Fall Statement as we like to call it, we would&nbsp;
like to take this opportunity to update you on the&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Province’s finances and borrowing program.
Let’s start with Ontario’s fiscal position.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Ontario’s deficit this fiscal year is projected to&nbsp;
be $13.5 billion — an improvement of $1.1 billion&nbsp;&nbsp;

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from what was published in the 2025 Budget,&nbsp;
primarily due to stronger taxation and broader&nbsp;&nbsp;

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public sector revenues. The projections for the&nbsp;
next two fiscal years are consistent with what&nbsp;&nbsp;

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was outlined in the Budget and the Province&nbsp;
is on track to a path to balance by 2027–28.&nbsp;

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Ontario’s survey of private-sector forecasts shows&nbsp;
that while the Province’s economy is forecast to&nbsp;&nbsp;

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continue growing, it is expected to be at a&nbsp;
moderate pace this year and the next as trade&nbsp;&nbsp;

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tensions and tariffs weigh on the outlook.
Now let’s turn to the borrowing program.&nbsp;

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Compared to the 2025 Budget, our long-term&nbsp;
borrowing forecast for this fiscal year has&nbsp;&nbsp;

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decreased slightly to $42.5 billion.
This is primarily due to the lower&nbsp;&nbsp;

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than forecasted deficit, but also because we&nbsp;
have plans to increase short-term borrowing&nbsp;&nbsp;

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by $5.5 billion this fiscal year and next&nbsp;
fiscal year as well. This allows us to take&nbsp;&nbsp;

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advantage of the steady decline in short-term&nbsp;
interest rates relative to long-term rates.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Furthermore, as part of our strategy to diversify&nbsp;
the Province’s short-term investor base,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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we have re-established the U.S. Commercial Paper&nbsp;
Program and recently increased our authorized&nbsp;&nbsp;

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limit from $15 billion to $22.5 billion.
As of the release of the Fall Statement we&nbsp;&nbsp;

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have already completed 76 per cent or, $32.4&nbsp;
billion, of this year’s borrowing. We have&nbsp;&nbsp;

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been fortunate with favourable and cost&nbsp;
effective conditions both home and away.&nbsp;

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Of the amount borrowed to date, approximately&nbsp;
two thirds was completed in Canadian dollars&nbsp;&nbsp;

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through 25 syndicated issues and one Green Bond.&nbsp;
This is within the Province’s new guidance for&nbsp;&nbsp;

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domestic borrowing of 65 to 80 per cent for this&nbsp;
fiscal year, which was adjusted from the 70 to&nbsp;&nbsp;

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85 per cent target range in the 2025 Budget. We&nbsp;
will continue to monitor and adjust this range,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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in response to evolving investor demand&nbsp;
and conditions in global debt markets.&nbsp;

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The one third raised outside of Canada was&nbsp;
raised in a combination of U.S. dollars,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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euros and Swiss franc maturities. We have&nbsp;
had and continue to see very strong interest&nbsp;&nbsp;

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across a variety of markets and will seek&nbsp;
a broad distribution for Ontario issues.&nbsp;

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With the release of the Fall Statement, we expect&nbsp;
to return to the market as soon as possible.&nbsp;

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Finally, I’d like to turn to the&nbsp;
Province’s Debt Burden Reduction Strategy.&nbsp;

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The government remains committed to reducing&nbsp;
Ontario’s debt burden. It has maintained the&nbsp;&nbsp;

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targets that were set up in the 2023 Budget and&nbsp;
continues to make progress towards achieving them.&nbsp;

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The debt-to-GDP and interest-to-revenue&nbsp;
ratios remain better than the government’s&nbsp;&nbsp;

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targets now and through the medium-term outlook.
The debt-to-revenue ratio continues to be the most&nbsp;&nbsp;

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challenging target to achieve, but forecasts have&nbsp;
improved when compared to the 2025 Budget. Ontario&nbsp;&nbsp;

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has demonstrated its ability to bring this ratio&nbsp;
below its 200 per cent target by achieving this&nbsp;&nbsp;

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consecutively in the last two fiscal years. While&nbsp;
the current economic environment will temporarily&nbsp;&nbsp;

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raise the level of this ratio, the government&nbsp;
remains committed to, and has proven it has&nbsp;&nbsp;

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the capability to, re-attain this target.
You can find further fiscal and economic&nbsp;&nbsp;

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information on the Fall Statement on the&nbsp;
Ministry of Finance’s website. You can&nbsp;&nbsp;

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also find updated borrowing information in our&nbsp;
Investor Relations Presentation and Fact Sheet,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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posted on the OFA’s newly updated website.
Thank you very much for your time.

