Ontario wrapped up the 2024-25 fiscal year with a significantly lower deficit than initially projected in the budget, yet the province will implement a modified hiring freeze in an effort to control ballooning agencies, Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said Friday.

Mulroney and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy released public accounts that show the province ended the year with a deficit of $1.1 billion. The 2024 budget had forecast a deficit of $9.8 billion.

“As the government’s portfolio of projects have grown, so has the staffing growth in our agencies,” Mulroney said. “Therefore, to ensure growth in provincial agencies is consistent with our commitment to taxpayers, we are enacting a hiring freeze across all provincial agencies in Ontario.”

Staffing at the province’s 143

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