Defend Public Healthcare

As usual, the provincial government is under-spending its (revised) budget.  Based on figures for provincial expenditures for the the first nine months of the fiscal year, the government-funded Financial Accountability Office (FAO) estimates that the government will under-spend its budget by about $2 billion this year. While that sounds like quite a bit -- it is actually less than usual.  Over the last ten years, the province has spent $3.3 billion less than budgeted on average. Combined with the expected non-use of the government’s $1 billion "reserve" (the reserve is an amount set aside every year for unexpected expenses), the FAO estimates the deficit will be only $6.1 billion, almost $3 billion less than predicted in the government’s own, very recent third-quarter report.  Health care expenditures are under-spent by $400 million (0.9%) through the first three quarters of the fiscal year, primarily due to under-spending on LHINs for hospitals, LTC, h