HOW DID THE DOUG FORD GOVERNMENT SPEND YOUR TAX DOLLARS DURING COVID-19?

TORSTAR COMPILED THE COVID-19 SPENDING BY PROVINCIAL MINISTRIES OVER THE PAST 2 FISCAL YEARS

With Ontarians heading to the polling stations in June, it's time to take a look at how Ontario's Progressive Conservative government spent tax dollars since coming into power in 2018.

The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world in the middle of Doug Ford's 2018-2022 term, prompting the premier to declare a state of emergency for Ontario and put in place public health mandates to help curb the spread of the virus and financial support measures in response to the economic impacts of the crisis.

The Ford government has faced criticism over its COVID-19 spending after the province's financial accountability officer found the province had not spent the pandemic contingency fund by the second quarter of 2020 as Ontarians battled the worsening third wave. The government later said it spent the entire $13.3-billion COVID-19 contingency fund in February 2021.

According to the financial details released in the Ontario's budgets, the province spent a total of $20.1 billion on COVID-19 time-limited funding and extraordinary contingencies in fiscal year 2021-2022 and $12 billion in the previous fiscal year.

The government distributed COVID-19 funding to 24 ministries in the last two fiscal years, according to the budgets.

Torstar compiled the COVID-19 spending by ministries over the last two fiscal years.

The Ministry of Health was the top spender of the COVID-19 funding from 2020 to 2022, with a combined expense of $13 billion, followed by Ministry of Education ($3.6 billion) and Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade ($3.57 billion).

When Ford was elected in the 2018 general election, he made promises to balance the budget and sustain finances. That was before a global public health crisis dealt a blow to the world economy.

At the height of the pandemic, Ontario ran a deficit of $16.4 billion in 2020/ 2021 and expected to have a deficit of $13.5 billion in 2021/22. The 2022-2023 budget released on April 28 forecasted a deficit of $19 billion (excluding $1 billion of reserve funding).