Fiscal update to include over $1.5B for rapid tests Fiscal update to include over $1.5B for rapid tests
- Toronto Star
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- HEATHER SCOFFIELD
The federal fiscal update contains more than $1.5 billion to buy rapid tests right away, the Star has learned.
The money will go toward buying the tests directly and also helping provinces with the logistics of distributing them, a federal source said on condition of anonymity.
It’s one of the few new spending items that will be included in Tuesday’s fiscal update, which will focus mainly on bringing the books up to date after last spring’s budget.
The goal is to respond to growing requests from provinces to make more use of rapid tests to quickly detect the new Omicron variant, which is highly contagious.
“For the last year, these tests were largely underutilized, but for the month of December, provinces and territories have requested around 35 million tests,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said last Friday.