New Report Says Ontario Has Billions More Unused COVID-19 Funding Than Any Other Province

A new report from a Canadian research institute says that there are billions of dollars of Ontario COVID-19 money that haven't been allocated yet.

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Ontario has over $6 billion in unallocated COVID-19 contingency funds — about $5 billion more than any other reported province.

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$6.4 billion Ontario's unallocated COVID-19 funds 

The CCPA report breaks down provincial funding across the country, giving an average estimate of how much money each province has committed to fighting COVID-19.

And Ontario is firmly in front of other provinces when it comes to unallocated COVID-19 contingency funding.

The province with the next highest amount of unallocated funding is Saskatchewan, which has $1.4 billion in the bank.

A spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Finance told Narcity via email that the figures in the report are "patently false" and are a "gross mischaracterization of reality."*

"Budget 2020 clearly shows the dedicated COVID-19 Health Contingency Fund and the Support for People and Jobs Fund was $2.6 billion, significantly lower than the alleged $6.4 billion figure touted by this group," the spokesperson said.*

Ontario has been called out for its financial tactics before — in December, a report said the province was sitting on $12 billion of funding.

Ontario NDP critics said at the time that the money should be being used for paid sick days and better school safety measures.

In response, Ford said the province actually only had $2.6 billion that wasn't planned for anything in particular and that the government was being "prudent fiscal managers" of the province's money. 

*This article has been updated.