$256 Million? $321 Million? $102 Million? Can anyone make sense of these numbers?
There has been a lot of discussion of Ontario’s autism funding levels in Question Period. Here’s one example from Lisa MacLeod, from February 21, 2019:
There are 23,000 children in this province who have gone without support. We have increased funding in this ministry. The budget used to be $256 million; I have increased it — during a time when the previous Liberal government left us with a $15-billion deficit — to $321 million. During that period of time, Speaker, I made a commitment to the parents who were currently receiving service that we would continue their funding throughout Christmas and had to go to Treasury Board for an emergency $102 million so that the 25% of the children who were receiving support could continue to receive support.
I can’t make any sense of this whatsoever. That’s not to say any of this is necessarily wrong — I just can’t figure out what she’s talking about.
Here’s what we do know. We do know how much the (previous) Ontario government actually spent the last three fiscal years:
- 2015–16 $189,080,119
- 2016–17 $254,633,529
- 2017–18 $317,801,400
Of course, actual spending and budgeted spending are two different things. But it’s hard to get a budget of $256 million given the government spent $317M the previous fiscal year. The $256M figure makes sense in the context of 2016–17, less so in 2017–18.
Secondly, I can’t reconcile how $102 million more than $256 million leads to a total expenditure of $321 million. Would seem to me that it should be $358 million; they’re $37 million short.
My questions:
- How could it be that $256 million was budgeted for in 2018–19 when $317 million was spent in 2017–18, and no one was suggesting a reduction in funding?
- If the budget was, in fact, $256 million, and $102 million was added to it, why is expenditure only $321 million, not $358 million? What happened to the remaining $37 million?