Finance Minister Defends Deficit Budget as Health Spending Rises

HALIFAX - With his second budget officially passed in the dying hours of the recently-wrapped spring session of Nova Scotia's provincial legislature, Finance Minister Allan MacMaster is once again defending the decision to go into deficit while increasing funding on health-care spending. 

The minister, who also serves as deputy Premier and MLA for the riding of Inverness, told TELILE 24/7 host Adam Cooke that the new projected deficit of $278.9 million - and an additional two years of projected deficits - will be necessary in order to plug the holes in a health-care system that has seen emergency departments closing on a regular basis and a new high of 144,000 Nova Scotians currently struggling to find a family doctor. 

MacMaster also pointed out that the province benefitted in the previous fiscal year from higher-than-expected revenues that quickly turned a projected deficit of over $300 million for the 2022-23 period. 

In looking at Nova Scotia's new capital spending plan, which was released just prior to the tabling of his second budget as PC Finance Minister, MacMaster was optimistic about the pending completion of the Port Hastings Roundabout project, which is slated to replace the decades-old Port Hastings Rotary by the end of 2024. 

Also airing on this week's edition of TELILE 24/7: 

* The coordinator of the Raising The Villages early childhood program, Jim Mustard, presented an update to Richmond Municipal Council's Committee of the Whole that included a pitch for the county to consider establishing multiple child care centres that would continue the work of the Raising The Villages program within the county borders. 

* Cape Breton-Canso Member of Parliament Mike Kelloway added to his previous comments on the newly-released 2023-24 federal budget by announcing that he is planning to make two upcoming stops in Richmond County to deliver federal announcements regarding job creation and infrastructure development.