The Ford government’s reporting a record spending increase over the last fiscal year.

The just released public accounts report for 2020-21 shows program expenses were $169-billion; which was $16.7-billion higher than the previous fiscal.

Despite the record spending increase, the province says spending was still $5.6-billion lower than forecast because the third wave peaked later than expected, after the fiscal year ended March 31.

NDP Deputy Leader Sara Singh and the party’s finance critic Catherine Fife say Doug Ford chose not to protect the public.

”He had the money,” according to Singh, ”He didn’t want to spend it.”

”Doug Ford could have blunted the third wave,” says Fife, ”He chose not to.”

The government says the allocated unspent funds will be accounted for in this fiscal year.

The deficit is pegged at $16.4-billion, lower than what was forecast, in part due to higher than expected tax revenues as Ontarians received COVID-19 government assistance.