The Ontario government has announced that it will unveil the 2021 Budget in March 24th.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says the Budget will support the province’s comprehensive vaccine distribution plan, along with providing additional resources for the health care sector and initiatives to protect the economic well-being of families, workers and employers.
He says it will continue to focus on protecting people’s health and jobs through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our focus has got to be protecting health and jobs today,” said Minister Bethlenfalvy. “Even though the light at the end of the tunnel shines brighter with each person that is vaccinated, we are going to take nothing for granted. This caution is necessary to save lives. And it’s also necessary for our economic and fiscal recovery, because as I often say, without healthy people, you can’t have a healthy economy. So, we’ll defeat the virus by working together. And when we do, our collective efforts will turn to unleashing the growth that we are going to count on for a strong recovery.”
Since the 2020 Budget, Ontario’s Action Plan: Protect, Support, Recover, Ontario has invested an additional $2.6 billion to protect and support people’s health and economic well-being, which includes:
- Launching Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy and administering nearly one million vaccines as of March 10, 2021
- Making more than $1 billion in payments to small businesses that were required to close or significantly restrict services under the Provincewide Shutdown through the Ontario Small Business Support Grant, with grants starting from $10,000 up to $20,000
- Investing over $115 million to train up to 8,200 new personal support workers (PSWs) for high-demand jobs in Ontario’s health and long-term care sectors by fall 2021
- Increasing investments by $869 million for the hospital sector for supplies and equipment to address the surge in COVID-19 cases, including testing, swabs, saliva tubes and test kits, bringing the total increase in funding to hospitals since 2019-20 to $3.4 billion
- Expanding eligibility for the Main Street Relief Grant to include small businesses with 2-19 employees, including those in the arts, entertainment and recreation sectors, to help offset the costs of purchasing personal protective equipment with up to $1,000 in financial support
- Expanding Ontario’s Support for Learners program to include students aged 13 through to Grade 12
It is my pleasure to announce that the #2021OntarioBudget will be released on March 24th.
Our Budget will focus on protecting the Health and Jobs of the people of Ontario. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/0apot4HBnL
— Peter Bethlenfalvy (@PBethlenfalvy) March 11, 2021