The Ontario Third Quarter report shows that the government is projecting to spend $25 billion more than last year, including an additional $2.6 billion since the 2020 Budget.
The money will support small businsses, hospitals and long-term care homes.
That brings one-time pandemic spending to $13.3 billion.
The funds were provided to the province from the federal government and Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy says some have criticized their response plan
“They’ve claimed that we haven’t spent the money. These claims are simply incorrect. Thank goodness we were prepared. Just consider all that has happened since November. Because we were prepared we could increase capacity in our hospitals and protect our loved ones to the best of our ability.”
He notes they have also topped up their COVID-19 contingency fund to $3.9 billion by adding an extra $2.1 billion to address future spending needs for the rest of the fiscal year.
Bethlenfalvy says this is an extraordinary step but notes these are extraordinary times.
He stresses they will continue to spend whatever it takes to protect Ontarians and defeat COVID-19.
He says, “This report shows that our responsible, forward thinking planning, has allowed us to continue to respond to this unprecedented situation.”
He adds, “The report shows that the government has flowed all of the time-limited and extraordinary contingencies we had allocated for this fiscal year so that we could remain responsive as the pandemic continued to unfold.”
The update projects a deficit of $38.5 billion in 2020-21, unchanged from the outlook projected in the 2020 Budget and the 2020-21 First Quarter Finances.
Bethlenfalvy says the government will remain transparent Ontarians when updating their finances noting the next update will be delivered no later than March 31.
