The planned budget deficit widens in New Brunswick

New Brunswick public finances are moving towards a larger deficit of $ 669 million for the current year, the Minister of Finance and his team said on Tuesday. The return to budgetary balance is always out of sight.

According to the most recent projections, the deficit widens about $ 120 million compared to what was planned during the budget of March.

Income decreases by $ 60 million. This situation is mainly attributable to the decrease in federal conditional subsidieswrites the ministry in its update.

Expenditure also increases by $ 60 million Due to higher expenses for the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Health.

The era of compressions will continue

Minister René Legacy could not say when the province would again reach the balance of budget, but recognized that The province does not have the capacity to maintain this rhythm.

We cannot just continue to say that we will have 600 or 700 million deficits without asking the departments [ministères] to find different ways to do thingshe adds in French.

The Green Party leader, David Coonthink that in the immediate future, the province can still afford three or four years of deficit, but it must reveal a strategy for the return to balance.

It is necessary to have a plan to manage the debt. The plan does not exist!

The progressive-conservative Don Monahan also criticizes the absence of a return to balance budget. The province, financially, is in good health, but for how long?

At the end of the line, who will be responsible? It’s going to be you, it’s going to be me, it’s going to be all the people in New Brunswick.

In April, the damage to the budgetary balance was pushed back to the Greek calendars, even if the Liberals had committed to balance the budgets.

A decline on childcare cuts?

Fredericton increases budgets by around $ 35 million for the child protection services of the Ministry of Social Development.

This is one of the sectors where the ministry faces pressuressaid Nick McCannanother senior official in the province.

This is a change since in April, the province had reduced the budget of these services by $ 23 million.

They shouldn’t have cutsays Don Monahanthe critic for the finance files of the official opposition, which salutes the change.

These cuts had been strongly denounced by the defender of children and youth and by the opposition chief Glen Savoie in the parliamentary committee.

The Prime Minister had avoided admitting that it was compression, preferring to speak savings objectives.

On Tuesday, the Minister of Finance René Legacy could not say if the increase in the budget for these services was in response to the discussions held in the spring about him.

In his speech, the minister explained that he wanted to add funding for more upstream interventions, and better solutions for children and families.

And the commercial context?

The Prime Minister said he feared this winter that economic uncertainty linked to the trade conflict with the United States is climbing public finances.

However, the effects of customs tariffs are still uncertain, explained the executive director at the Ministry of Finance during a technical basis, Todd Selby.

The effects are not as tall as we thoughthe said, not excluding that it can be felt later. It’s really very early in the process.

We will not have a precise idea of the magnitude of the impact before probably the second or the third quarterthen added the Minister of Finance René Legacy.