It’s a give-and-take budget.

Ontario’s Liberal government is giving free tuition to many university and college students — and taking more from motorists and homeowners through costlier gasoline and natural gas.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa introduced a record $133.9-billion spending plan Thursday with a $4.3-billion deficit that he insisted will be eliminated when he finally balances the books next year.

It’s an ambitious fiscal blueprint featuring free post-secondary education for students from families with a household income of less than $50,000, while also putting a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change.

“There is room for everyone. Room for everyone to compete and do business. Room to learn — and, above all, room to help each other,” Sousa told the legislature.

“We know that people who have a degree or diploma can expect to earn more than people who don’t. We also know that people from low-income families do not pursue a post-secondary education as much as others because they think they cannot afford it.”

Along with eliminating fees for the poor — offset by scrapping existing education tax credits — the government will make student assistance programs “less complex and easier to access.”

Sousa formalized Ontario’s new cap-and-trade program, being done in conjunction with Quebec and California, which forces businesses and consumers to reduce carbon emissions by increasing fuel costs.

Gasoline will jump by 4.3 cents a litre next year and natural gas prices will rise by about $5 a month for the average homeowner. Overall, the government estimates car-driving Ontario households will pay $13 more a month for fuels, but electricity rates won’t rise as a result of cap-and-trade. As one sop, the province is eliminating the $30 Drive Clean levy.

Polluting businesses will face charges for emitting greenhouse gases beyond their “cap” though some will be phased in over four years to give them time to transition. In total, the government will reap $1.9 billion in the new carbon fees. That’s $600 million more than previously estimated.

By law, all proceeds must be used to reduce emissions — on public transit, energy management and conservation measures, geothermal technologies, public charging stations for electric cars, and supports for agriculture and the forestry industry.

“Companies could respond by investing in clean technologies to become more efficient, burning fewer fossil fuels or buying additional carbon credits,” said Sousa, stressing the measure is not a cash grab.

“Ontario is investing in the global low-carbon economy and we will reap the economic and jobs benefits and Ontario’s clean-tech companies will thrive.”

It’s effectively a green shift that will mean higher costs just as the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan begins in 2018, which will affect all employers and employees who do not have a workplace pension.

“We believe that every working Ontarian deserves a secure retirement,” Sousa said of the scheme designed to complement the Canada Pension Plan.

The treasurer emphasized this will be the last budget awash in red ink.

“We continue to chip away at the deficit . . . we are in the home stretch. This will be the last deficit before we erase it completely in 2017-18 — we are balancing the budget,” he said.

As of March 31, Ontario’s debt will be $296.1 billion, rising to $308.3 billion next year. the province currently spends more on interest payments — $11.8 billion, even with historically low borrowing rates — than on anything except health care and education.

Thursday’s budget enshrines in law Ontario’s liberalized alcohol retailing that will see wine on supermarket shelves later this year, following the successful introduction of beer in grocery stores last Christmas.

But wine taxes will increase by an average of 10 cents a 750 ml bottle.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, a teetotaler, suggested Ontarians will be drowning their sorrows after Sousa’s “revenue grab.”

“Life is harder and more expensive under the Liberals,” Brown told reporters.

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“Cap-and-trade is a new tax grab on home heating and gasoline with no guarantee that the money will go toward climate change,” he said, conceding something must be done to cut carbon pollution.

While NDP Leader Andrea Horwath noted her party has long called for cap-and-trade, she expressed concern at the Liberal plan.

“There are three things we wanted to see in the cap-and-trade plan and frankly we didn’t see it in this budget,” said Horwath, referring to the need for greater transparency, breaks for low-income Ontarians and northerners, and an effective climate-change strategy.

“There is no fairness built in to this cap-and-trade plan. Life is getting harder for folks.”