BUDGET PACKS RECORD DEFICIT

Major COVID-19 spending for Ontario

Ontario's Progressive-Conservative government unveiled a 2020 budget Thursday that poured billions more into responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but made no explicit mention of new money for public health units like Ottawa's, which is facing significant cost overruns from doing the same.

It was the province's first budget since COVID-19 upended the economy and the lives of so many Ontarians, and includes plans for $45 billion in pandemic-related spending over the next three years and a record deficit of $38.5 billion for this one, as had already been projected in an August fiscal update. A path to balance is expected in next year's budget.

“As the people of Ontario understand, the current levels of government spending are neither sustainable nor desirable over the long run,” Finance Minister Rod Phillips said in his budget speech.

“But, as the global pandemic continues around the world, they remain necessary today.”

The spending plan factored in many funding commitments that had already been announced, but it did unveil new initiatives as well, including another round of $200-per-child payments to parents through the Support for

Learners initiative, a proposed new home-renovation tax credit designed to help seniors stay in their homes longer, emergency funding for arts institutions, a move to subsidize a portion of hydro rates for medium and large commercial and industrial businesses, and a $150-million initiative to cover a portion of tourism expenses for Ontario staycations.

Notably absent was costing for the new standard for long-term care announced earlier this week under which nursing home residents would receive an average of four hours of direct care daily. Asked about the omission, Premier Doug Ford insisted the province was “totally committed” to the new standard, but said it needed to consult with stakeholders before providing more details.

The budget also made no mention of additional support for public health units, which drew the ire of the Ontario New Democratic Party.

“There are no new investments in public health, despite rationed testing and contact tracing,” the official Opposition said in a prepared statement, with leader Andrea Horwath saying that left families “at grave risk.”

CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn also called out the provincial government for failing to provide new money for public health “when we need their important work now more than ever.”

Ottawa Public Health faces $12 million in pandemic-related budget pressure for 2020. In presenting the city's 2021 budget on Wednesday, Mayor Jim Watson said OPH was waiting on confirmation that the province would pick up that tab.

“We hope to see language in the provincial budget (Thursday) reconfirming that this support is forthcoming,” Watson said.

While the spending plan announced Thursday didn't spell this out, Watson maintained in a subsequent interview that he felt good about OPH receiving money to cover its 2020 deficit.

OPH board chair and Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli had much the same reaction.

“We've had good discussions with the province, as has Dr. Etches,” Egli said, referring to Ottawa's medical officer of health.

Egli said he and Watson had scheduled a meeting with Health Minister Christine Elliott for next week and public health funding would be a major topic of discussion.

Egli said he and Watson have a meeting scheduled with Health Minister Christine Elliott next week and the $12-million budget crunch will be a major topic of discussion. Looking forward, OPH also anticipates a possible $22.5-million shortfall for 2021. Here, too, Egli was optimistic the city wouldn't be left holding the bag.

“We haven't been given any indication from the province to stand down on responding to COVID or to stand down on doing the normal sorts of day-to-day work that public health carries out, and in order to do that, it's going to cost more money because the normal budget doesn't take into account something like COVID. So I'm hopeful that it will all get sorted out in the end,” Egli said.

The mayor also said he's optimistic about Ottawa health-care programs receiving a good chunk of the $6 billion in provincial money earmarked to protect people from COVID-19.

Thursday's budget also revealed that Ontario's PC government wants to grant municipalities the power to issue property-tax breaks to small businesses. Regarding this proposal, Ottawa's mayor saw only pitfalls.

“It's an interesting idea, but obviously, if you lower someone's taxes, you've got to raise someone else's,” Watson said.

Watson said he liked the province's idea of lowering business education taxes, but property taxes are the municipality's largest source of revenue and cutting one tax category would lead to an increase for other taxpayers.