Pre-election New Brunswick budget stays the course on taxes, health spending
CBC
The Higgs government has delivered a stand-pat provincial budget that avoids new spending measures, tax cuts or other gimmicks that might curry favour with voters ahead of the election this fall.
Finance Minister Ernie Steeves has opted to stay the course rather than slash taxes or throw huge new sums of money at the health-care system.
That leaves him projecting another small surplus for 2024-25 of just $41 million.
Steeves has vastly underestimated the surplus in each of the last four years, but this year he is again repeating his warning that higher-than-expected revenue for the government is bound to come to an end.
"Revenue is not anticipated to continue the pace of growth seen in recent years, and maintaining spending growth at current levels will not be sustainable over the longer term," he said in his budget speech delivered in the legislature.
"The fiscal plan I have outlined today reflects the needs of a growing province, recognizes the volatile times we find ourselves in, and considers the need to remain fiscally responsible over the longer term."
Notably, the health budget is nudging up by only $1.6 million over the province's revised spending figure this year.
That is despite several increases including:
Steeves said those new items are offset by one-time costs this year that won't repeat in the coming year, including the large amounts paid to private companies providing travel nurses to fill staffing gaps.
The new amounts are still far from the $600 million in new spending recently demanded by the New Brunswick Medical Society and the New Brunswick Nurses Union.
They were looking for $70 million for primary care clinics, an amount they said would be enough for 50 such centres around the province.
Medical society president Dr. Paula Keating said the organization was "somewhat disappointed" because it's not clear how many clinics the $20 million will create.
Opposition party leaders said the money falls short of what's needed.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt said there was nothing in the budget that "transforms" the system.
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