A substantial portion of that spending — $69.4 billion — was directed toward health and safety measures. Much of that pandemic spending went to programs that were conceived on the fly and implemented in a matter of weeks — programs like the emergency response benefit and the wage subsidy. And a lot of that money got spent very quickly — $209.7 billion was distributed in the 2020-2021 fiscal year. "With its response to the COVID‑19 pandemic, the Government of Canada set an objective of helping Canadians as quickly as possible. But a true reckoning with the federal government's extraordinary spending during the pandemic would also deal with the practical aspects of how and why those benefits rolled out as they did.

Source: CBC News December 11, 2022 21:00 UTC