Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy builds on the government’s record spending in response to the global pandemic, bringing total investments to $51 billion over four years.
Protecting People’s Health
Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy brings the government’s total investment to protect people’s health to $16.3 billion. Highlights include:
Defeating COVID‑19
- To vaccinate every person in the province who wants to be vaccinated, Ontario has made more than $1 billion available for a provincewide vaccination plan. Ontario is also making it safer to
re-engage with workplaces, businesses and communities, with $2.3 billion for testing and contact tracing. - To protect the frontline heroes and vulnerable people, Ontario has made available $1.4 billion for personal protective equipment, including more than 315 million masks and more than 1.2 billion gloves.
- To ensure every person who requires care in a hospital can access a bed, even during the worst of the pandemic, the government is investing an additional $5.1 billion to support hospitals since the pandemic began, creating more than 3,100 additional hospital beds. This includes $1.8 billion in 2021–22 to continue providing care for COVID‑19 patients, address surgical backlogs and keep pace with patient needs.
Fixing Long-Term Care
- To address decades of neglect and help those waiting to get into long-term care, Ontario is investing an additional $933 million over four years, for a total of $2.6 billion, to support building 30,000 new long-term care beds. Ontario is also investing $246 million over the next four years to improve living conditions in existing homes, including ensuring homes have air conditioning for residents, so loved ones can live in comfort and with safety, dignity and respect.
- To protect loved ones in long-term care from the deadly COVID‑19 virus, Ontario is investing an additional $650 million in 2021–22, bringing the total resources invested since the beginning of the pandemic to protect the most vulnerable to over $2 billion.
- To ensure loved ones receive the best quality care in Canada, Ontario is investing $4.9 billion over four years to increase the average direct daily care to four hours a day in long-term care and hiring more than 27,000 new positions, including personal support workers (PSWs) and nurses.
Caring for People
- To address the need for more health care services, Ontario is making investments to support historic hospital expansion and construction projects, including a new inpatient wing at
William Osler Health System’s Peel Memorial and ongoing planning of a new regional hospital in Windsor-Essex. The government is also investing in the creation of new children's treatment centres in Ottawa and Chatham-Kent to increase access to critical programs and services. - To help the thousands of people struggling with mental health and addictions issues, Ontario is providing additional funding of $175 million in 2021–22, as part of the historic investment of
$3.8 billion over ten years, to provide more and better care for everyone who needs it. - To assist survivors of domestic violence — which has increased during COVID‑19 — and other heinous crimes like human trafficking, Ontario is investing an additional $2.1 million over three years to support victims of crime. This support is in addition to funding provided through various existing programs to help victims of domestic violence and other violent crimes.
- To make progress in our collective efforts to address systemic racism, Ontario is making additional investments in key communities. This includes investments of $1.6 million over two years to support the Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Grant program, which will support community based anti-racism initiatives focusing on anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. This builds on a $60 million investment in the Black Youth Action Plan.
Protecting Our Economy
Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy brings the government’s total investment to protect Ontario’s economy to $23.3 billion. Highlights include:
Supporting Workers and Families
- To help workers with their training expenses, the government is proposing a new Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit for 2021. It would provide up to $2,000 per recipient for 50 per cent of eligible expenses, for a total of an estimated $260 million in support to about 230,000 people in 2021.
- To help families — who have faced new pressures and expenses due to the pandemic — keep more money in their pockets, the government is providing a third round of payments to support parents through the Ontario COVID‑19 Child Benefit, totalling $1.8 billion since last March. The payment will be doubled to $400 per child for this round and $500 for each child with special needs, which means a family with three young children, one of whom has special needs, will receive $2,600 in total after the third round of payments.
- To support parents with the cost of child care and help them get back to the workforce, the government is proposing a 20 per cent enhancement of the CARE tax credit for 2021. This would increase support from $1,250 to $1,500, on average, providing about $75 million in additional support for the child care expenses of over 300,000 families.
- To help seniors stay in the homes they love, longer, Ontario has introduced the Seniors’ Home Safety Tax Credit for 2021. This new credit will provide an estimated $30 million in support for about 27,000 seniors and people who live with senior relatives.
Supporting Jobs
- To help small businesses that have been most affected by the necessary restrictions to protect people from COVID‑19, Ontario is providing a second round of Ontario Small Business Support Grant payments to eligible recipients. Approximately 120,000 small businesses will automatically benefit from an additional $1.7 billion in relief through this second round of support in the form of grants of a minimum of $10,000 and up to $20,000 — bringing the estimated total support provided through this grant to $3.4 billion.
- To support Ontario’s tourism, hospitality and culture industries, that have been among the most heavily impacted by the COVID‑19 pandemic, Ontario is investing an additional $400 million over the next three years in new initiatives to support these sectors. This builds on previously announced investments of $225 million, bringing the total to more than $625 million since the pandemic began.
- To connect homes, businesses, and communities to broadband — which COVID‑19 has demonstrated is a necessity, not a luxury — Ontario is investing $2.8 billion, bringing the Province’s total investment to nearly $4 billion over six years beginning 2019–20.
- To encourage business investment in certain regions of the province that have lagged in employment growth in the past, Ontario is proposing to temporarily enhance the Regional Opportunities Investment Tax Credit by investing an additional $61 million, resulting in total tax credit support of about $155 million by 2022–23.
Supporting Communities
- To support faith-based and cultural organizations that are struggling due to the additional costs caused by COVID‑19, Ontario will be making up to $50 million available for grants to eligible organizations.
- To support Ontario’s 444 municipalities, the province’s key partners in the fight against COVID‑19, the government is providing almost $1 billion in additional financial relief in 2021 to help
preserve vital public services and support economic recovery. This builds on the $4 billion in federal–provincial support provided to communities across the province under the historic Safe Restart Agreement. Ontario joins municipalities in our continued calls for the federal government to step up and provide, at minimum, a matching amount of federal funding to these important new provincial investments. - To support long-term economic growth and sustainable public finances, the government must evolve and become more modern, along with the rest of the world. Ontario is committed to supporting a modern government that puts citizens at the centre of every action we take. Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy provides a progress update on our Ontario COVID‑19 Action Plan for a People-Focused Government and the $500 million Ontario Onwards Acceleration Fund.
Chart Description
Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy
- Protecting People’s Health — $16.3 Billion
- Protecting Our Economy — $23.3 Billion
- Total Direct Support — $39.6 Billion
- Improving Cash Flow for People and Businesses — $11.3 Billion
- $51 Billion in Total Supports over Four Years
Updated: March 24, 2021
Published: March 24, 2021