Bylaw officers in one of the province's COVID-19 hot spots have issued dozens of fines for businesses operating against public health orders in York Region.

A government source says Premier Doug Ford is expected to announce Monday that the state of emergency declared last month will be allowed to expire as scheduled on Feb. 9.

The Small Business Support Grant will provide between $10,000 and $20,000 to eligible businesses that were ordered closed or were subject to "significant" restrictions.

Ontario's Progressive Conservative government presented their first pandemic-era budget Thursday.

The government revised the projection upward in a fiscal update provided Wednesday at the provincial legislature.

In a report released Tuesday, the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario compares the Progressive Conservative government's budget projections for 2019-2020, changes made after the budget was tabled, with its actual spending.

Six working groups are meeting to focus on sectors including micro and small business, manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, professional and construction.

"I'm getting lobbied hard by so many groups and organizations, but it's easy to say, 'Open, open, open,' until we get a second wave of this and it bites us in the backside," Ford said. "I just ask people to be patient."

It will be the Progressive Conservative government's second budget, but Finance Minister Rod Phillips' first.

The report says post-secondary institutions and other IP creators in the province don't have high enough levels of understanding around intellectual property.