Finance Minister Scott Fielding reports since March they’ve had to raise their outlook as they address Manitoba’s largest health, financial and economic challenge of a lifetime. He projects for the 2020-21 fiscal year a revised deficit of just over two billion dollars.  He explains they’ve committed 3.2 billion dollars to address the pandemic including spending to address its impact this year and spending to help recover in future years.  He notes COVID-19 related health expenditure is approximately 633 million dollars above what they budgeted in the initial budget which includes over 522 million related to personal protective equipment and supplies.

Fielding adds they received 648 million dollars from the federal government which is about 20 percent of the total commitment.