There has been an increase in health care and education spending by the Ford government.
The Financial Accountability Office says an extra $2.6 billion was directed toward education in the last three months with the healthcare sector receiving over $1.5 billion.
Some of the money was used to compensate workers after wage-restraint legislation was struck down by the courts.
Financial Accountability Officer Jeff Novak is not sure exactly how much.
“We don’t know the exact amount. I think we’re calling it partially. It’s roughly give or take half,” says Novak.
“And there’s also just increased utilization in the program and in both the additional health and education spending.”
The FAO estimates that the provincial will have paid $13.7 billion in workers’ compensation related to Bill 124 by 2028.
Novak notes the increase in education and health care was offset by lower spending in other areas.
There was over $2.5 billion less spent on what is described as ‘other programs’ and $1.1 less to pay the interest on the province’s debt.
Children, community and social services and post-secondary education programs also saw less than expected in the last three months.
The FAO also reports that the Ford government continues to sit on more than $5 billion.
The contingency fund has increased by a billion dollars since last April, with an infusion of $2.5 billion made in the last three months.
Some money has been taken out of cover programming.
Officer Jeff Novak stops short of calling the move unusual.
“I don’t know if it’s unusual, because we have seen that happen in previous expenditure monitors. The approach that we take with this report is that we’re just producing the facts about the whole government spending plan and what’s happened, and so we’re just tracking it and reporting it to MPPs, and they can kind of decide if they’re happy with how government spending is going and how they’re using the funds.”
