Letters to Provinces and Territories: Ontario 2023

The Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy. M.P.P.
Minister of Finance
Government of Ontario
Frost Building South, 7th Floor
7 Queen's Park Crescent
Toronto, ON   M7A 1Y7

Dear Minister,

I am pleased to provide you with Ontario's transfer payment amounts for 2024-25 in accordance with the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (the Act) and relevant regulations.

Total major transfers to Ontario for 2024-25 will round to $27.5 billion.

The first estimates of your province's Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer payments for 2024-25 are $20.3 billion and $6.6 billion respectively. In accordance with the legislated formula under the Act and its regulations, your province qualifies for an Equalization payment of $576 million for 2024-25.

In 2024-25, the federal government will provide a total of $52.1 billion to provinces and territories under the Canada Health Transfer—an increase of 5.4% from 2023-24.

As you know, our governments reached an agreement in principle on health care transfers earlier this year, and our Health Ministers are making progress towards negotiating a first bilateral agreement.

Once finalized, these bilateral agreements will provide Ontario with $8.4 billion over 10 years to address its unique health system needs, such as expanding access to services, supporting health care workers, reducing backlogs, increasing mental health and substance use support, improving licensing and credential recognition, and modernizing health systems.

To receive funding for 2023-24, Ontario must sign a bilateral agreement by March 31, 2024. I encourage you to work with your Health Minister to finalize an agreement before this date.

Enclosed for your information is a table presenting the 2024-25 major transfer amounts for each province and territory. The table will be provided to your officials and posted on the Department of Finance's website.

I look forward to our continued work together.

Yours sincerely,

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P.