In the financial update released today by Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, the deficit projection for 2023-24 remains at the $1.3 billion set out in the spring budget.
Revenues and expenses are largely unchanged from the budget forecast, though a detailed look at the expenses sets out $766.6 million in new program spending.
About half of that is to develop industrial land for large-scale manufacturing, with money also going toward policing, flood protection in Toronto, affordable housing in Ottawa and Ontario’s wine sector.
The vast majority of the $766.6 million comes from the contingency fund, which the budget set at $4 billion.
Ontario’s fiscal watchdog has been critical of what he called this government’s unusually large contingency funds, saying that type of accounting is not transparent.
