Ontario ends 2023-24 with nearly balanced budget, partly due to international tuition [Video]

Ontario ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with a nearly balanced budget, in part due to higher-than-expected revenue from international student tuition at colleges.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy and Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney released public accounts Thursday, a final tally of the spending and revenues for the last fiscal year. It showed Ontario ended the 2023-24 year just $600 million in the red, down from the $1.3-billion deficit for that year projected in the 2023 budget.

Revenues were up by $1.6 billion, or eight per cent, from what was expected at the time of the 2023 budget, and that was largely driven by increased tuition revenue from international students at colleges, government officials said.

That revenue is accounted for as part of “other non-tax revenues,” which were $3.4 billion higher than projected. That boost was partially offset by lower-than-expected tax revenues.

Ontario universities nearly doubled international student enrolment between 2014-15 and 2021-22, and colleges more than tripled …