Overview of the 2021 Ontario Government Budget

2021 Ontario Budget – Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy
An overview of the Ontario government’s budget

March 25, 2021

Overview
Yesterday, March 24, the government released the 2021 Ontario Budget entitled “Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy.” This budget builds on the investments announced last March in “Ontario’s Action Plan: Responding to COVID-19” and on the 2020 budget that was introduced last November. It has two major areas of focus:

• Protecting People’s Health: An allocation of $16.3B to protect people’s health, including more than $1B to support the administration, distribution, and roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine and $2.3B in 2021-22 for a comprehensive testing strategy.
• Protecting Our Economy: An investment of $23.3B to support families, workers, and small businesses impacted by the public health measures put in place to manage the spread of the virus.

The $16.3B for health care and $23.3B for the economy, makes total direct support $39.6B. An additional $11.3B was announced to improve cash flow for people and businesses. This makes the total supports committed by the government to be $51B over four years.

AFHTO is disappointed that there were no funding announcements made to support primary care or team-based primary care. Post-pandemic recovery cannot happen without investments in the community and within primary care, and the sector needs help to improve the health and well-being of all Ontarians.

There were also no investments in paid sicks days for people who can’t afford to stay home when sick. There were some mental health and vulnerable populations supports although they were not significant, and none flow directly to primary care.

We will continue to work with our partners and to advocate for the importance of primary care in the pandemic response and the integral role the sector plays in supporting the most vulnerable populations. We thank you for all the work you do, day in and day out, to support your patients and your communities.   

Here is an overview of the budget:

Protecting People’s Health

• Defeating COVID-19
  • $1B for a province-wide vaccination plan.
  • $2.3B for testing and contact tracing.
  • $1.4B for PPE, including more than 315 million masks and 1.2 billion gloves.
  • An additional $5.1B has been invested in hospitals since the pandemic began, including $1.8B announced for 2021-22 to continue providing care for COVID-19, to address surgical backlog, and to address current patient needs.
  • $3.7 million in 2021–22 to help remove transportation barriers for persons with disabilities and older adults with limited mobility to travel to their vaccination appointments.
  •  $50 million to support community‐led vaccination efforts in First Nations and urban Indigenous communities.
  • Ontario has invested over $100 million in IPAC funding and, building on this investment, is investing $50 million in 2021–22 to ensure IPAC resources and expertise are available across the health system, including hospitals and public health units.
• Fixing long-term care
  • $933M over four years, for a total of $2.6B, to support building 30,000 new long-term care beds.
  • $246M over the next four years to improve living conditions in existing homes, including providing air conditioning.
  • $4.9B over four years to increase average direct daily care to four hours a day and to hire more than 27,000 providers, including PSWs and nurses.
  • Expanding the Community Paramedicine for Long-term Care Program by investing $160M over three years to support 33 communities.
• Caring for People
  • An additional $175M for 2021-22 for people struggling with mental health and addiction problems. This is a part of the already announced $3.8B over 10 years.
  • There will be an additional $2.1M over three years to support victims of crime, such as domestic violence and human trafficking.
  • $12.5M over three years to enhance mental health services available to OPP staff.
  • Four new mobile mental health clinics across the province.
  • $8.4M over three years in a crisis call diversion program to provide supports, which may include diversion to appropriate mental health services. Mental health workers will be embedded in OPP communications centres.
  • $1.6M over two years to support the Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Group program.

Protecting Our Economy

• Supporting workers and families
  • Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit for 2021 of up to $2,000 per recipient for a total of roughly $260M.
  • Supporting parents with a child benefit through a third round of payments, totaling $1.8B since last March. The payment will be $400 per child and $500 for each child with special needs.
  • To support parents with childcare and getting back to work, a 20% enhancement of the CARE tax credit is proposed for 2021.
  • A Seniors’ Home Safety Tax Credit for 2021 to provide an estimated $30M in support for about 27,000 seniors.
• Supporting jobs:
  • A second round of the Ontario Small Business Support Grant payments, from which approximately 120,000 small businesses will benefit from an additional $1.7B in relief.
  • $400M over three years to the tourism, hospitality, and culture industries.
  • Ontario is investing $2.8 billion in broadband, bringing the province’s total investment to nearly $4 billion over six years, beginning in 2019-20.
  • Temporarily enhancing the Regional Opportunities Investment Tax Credit with an additional $61M.
• Supporting communities:
  • To support faith-based and cultural organizations, Ontario will be making up to $50M available for grants to eligible organizations.
  • To support Ontario’s municipalities, the government is providing almost $1B in additional financial relief in 2021 to help preserve public services and support economic recovery.

You can find full details of the “Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy” online, including the province’s economic and fiscal outlook, and borrowing and debt management.