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Ontario’s treasurer has some good news for the debt-burdened province: its deficit is down.

Well, the projected deficit for the fiscal year ending Monday is less than what they thought it might be, down about $1.6 billion to $10.9 billion, Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced Tuesday.

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That’s still an eye-popping figure compared to the province’s total budgeted spending, about $130 billion a year. That’s a shortfall of over 9%.

But the gap is smaller so that’s good news, right? Yes and no.

Overall, Ontario’s deficit is actually up over the 2013/14 fiscal year, which runs April 1 to March 31 of the following year. The 2013/14 final deficit figure was $10.5 billion.

Overall, Ontario’s deficit is actually up

That means if the current projection for the 2014/15 holds when public accounts are finalized in the fall, this year’s shortfall will actually be $400 million bigger than last.

That also means Ontario continues to add even more to its debt, which could hit $325 billion by 2017/18 according to the provincial auditor. All this despite the fact the provincial Liberals have repeatedly pledged to credit rating agencies and voters alike it will be completely eliminated by by April 1, 2018, the end of fiscal 2017/18.