Defend Public Healthcare

In the 2019/20 Ontario budget health care was budgeted at $59.97 billion.  That was subsequently increased by over $450 million to $60.42 billion, mostly through Supplementary Estimates late in the fiscal year. The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) now reports (based on current, but not yet final figures) that actual health care spending was  $59.96 billion – in other words, $466 million less than the revised health care budget.  So, despite increasing the health care budget by $453 million late in   the fiscal year, the government s pent $13 million less than it first budgeted.  That is about a 0.8% reduction compared with the revised budget plan.  It's a little hard to take Ford's protestations that he has no money for pandemic pay, and won't pay for more time to care, when he spends $466 million less on health care than he budgeted. One area with lower than  projected expenditures was the line item for local health agencies.  This is odd as public health is rather