Ontario among six provinces sitting on billions of federal COVID-19 money: report

Billions of dollars in COVID-19 recovery funds sent by Ottawa to the provinces appear to be sitting untouched.

That is according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Canada has earmarked $374 billion between federal and provincial governments in direct COVID-19 emergency spending.

But the analysis says six out of 10 provinces, including Ontario, haven’t spent all the money the federal government has sent their way, including for things like personal protective equipment.

“It’s incredibly problematic that several provinces do not yet have plans to spend federal money in health care, long-term care and housing at a time when it’s so urgently needed,” said report author David Macdonald.

“When it comes to government spending, this has largely been a federal show. There is room to do more, particularly at the provincial level, to mitigate the pandemic’s impacts.  Post-pandemic, all levels of government must work together to rebuild better—to be prepared for future crises, to tackle the inequities that COVID-19 has exposed, and to improve public services.”

Macdonald notes the longer all those dollars remain unspent, the less likely they ever will be spent.

The report says Ontario has $6.4 billion in a COVID-19 contingency fund, with no imminent plans on how to spend it. These funds are not unique but Ontario’s is the largest of all the provinces.

The money has been budgeted through the province’s Pandemic Fund, Support for People and Jobs Fund, an economic recovery fund and a health contingency fund.

The Ontario government is disputing the report’s findings, saying they “rely on months-old data and are patently false,” said an emailed statement from the office of Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance & President of the Treasury Board.

The statement goes on to say portions of the fund has been used to support the Ontario Small Business Support Grant and money has been made available to cover property tax and energy cost rebates to help eligible businesses.