KITCHENER -- The province’s Minister of Finance Rod Phillips spoke with CTV Kitchener’s Rosie Del Campo on Wednesday about the province’s fiscal state amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This comes as Ontario introduced a $17 billion package to support the province through the outbreak, including an influx of cash for the health sector, direct payments to parents, and tax breaks for businesses.
Transcript below:
Q: What does this mean for the health sector, particularly hospitals and resources for healthcare workers?
A: “Our number one priority is the health of Ontarians, and obviously COVID-19 presents and unprecedented risk from a health perspective, from economic perspective too, but when it comes to healthcare we’ve talked today about $3.3 billion of additional investments. It includes $343 million for 1,000 new critical care beds, 500 new acute care beds, over 70 testing centres for COVID-19 being set up, over $900 million more for our hospitals, a number of initiatives as well to support mental health, to support equipment, $75 million for the kind of medical equipment that our healthcare professionals need, and on top of that we’ve added $1 billion COVID-19 contingency fund just to be sure that we have the resources that healthcare professionals need, that our frontline workers need.”
Q: Locally, we are hearing from people who are being told that they can’t be tested at assessment centres. They say they’re being turned away because of capacity at this point. How, and will this funding help?
A: “This funding will be getting to the field right away and as I said we now have the funding for over 70 COVID-19 testing centres. We’re also having to get the materials and the tests, particularly the reagent, which is one of the pieces that’s needed for the test. Of course, there’s a worldwide demand for that now, but that’s why the premier has put a special focus on our procurement, making sure that we are getting the tests that we need to be able to ramp up that testing and that’s what he’s committed to and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Q: This is a big plan it will mean a deficit of over $20 billion this year alone. So, if Ontario encounters another significant event, what does this mean for our financial future?
A: “Fortunately, because of the work we’ve been doing for just under two years, the province is in the financial shape to be able to respond to this emergency. That’s why you want to be good fiscal stewards, in case of an emergency, and that emergency is COVID-10. So, we do have the resources and we do have the ability to fund what’s necessary, not just for healthcare but for jobs and the economy as well. That’s where the $17 billion comes from, but we will continue to make sure those resources are there and you know, we are going to get through this together. I think everybody is responding so well Rosie, you know I get stories every day from my home riding in Ajax and from other places about people reaching out and people helping other people. We just want to make sure the resources are there for our frontline health care workers, we want to make sure we are helping people that are going through this difficult time.”
