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HALIFAX – In what’s become a September pattern in Nova Scotia politics, the province’s finance minister is again projecting a bigger deficit than estimated in the spring budget.

However, unlike what’s occurred in the past two years, Finance Minister Allan MacMaster says there are signs the flow of red ink won’t be reversed by higher-than-forecast revenues as the year progresses.

MacMaster announced Friday the deficit forecast for the 2024-25 fiscal year has increased $187 million to $654 million on his $16.7 billion budget, due to higher department spending and a slowing flow of tax revenue.

The finance minister says he sees “notable” symptoms of a slowing economy, as tax revenues are forecast to be about $70 million less than anticipated in the spring budget. Those symptoms include a $44-million drop in harmonized sales taxes due to a decrease in consumer demand, according to the documents released Friday.

“What is notable is … the fact the provincial source revenues are down,” MacMaster said, adding this is “something consistent across the country and the economy is starting to cool.”

Still, he said it will require more detailed tax information later this fall to determine if the trend of decreasing tax revenues continues.

Assumptions in the spring budget on the number of new taxpayers coming on the rolls due to population increase were optimistic. In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the province’s population was growing at a rate of 3.5 per cent. But recent figures received by the Finance Department showed a growth rate of 1.88 per cent between July 2023 and July 2024, officials said Friday.

Consumer spending has also been slowing. In April, the province forecast household consumption would grow at 4.7 per cent, but it has actually been going up at a rate of 3.5 per cent.

The forecast includes about $243 million more in spending than forecast, including measures that weren’t announced or anticipated in the spring budget.

The provincial government has overestimated its deficit by wide margins in recent years and has made a number of spending announcements outside the spring budget process — drawing critiques from the auditor general for public money spent without the same legislative oversight that the budget receives.

The latest forecast includes a suite of “additional appropriations” — expenses or programs that weren’t included in the spring budget — most notably $178.4 million for health spending. Higher health costs include $111 million for Nova Scotia Health, increases of about $34 million for capital projects, and $28 million for a recent contract with paramedics.

The Health Department has also had to spend $17.8 million more than forecast on travel nursing, due to unanticipated vacancies.

Public Works spending has gone up $23 million, including $17.8 million for storm damage. Debt servicing costs have increased $31 million since the budget was tabled.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said she lacks confidence in the government’s figures after three years of dire deficit forecasts in the fall that later became surpluses.

“We’re seeing … a deficit that may not be a deficit, and a ton of spending that’s outside of the actual budget process, much of which is not particularly urgent,” she said.

Keith Irving, a Liberal Party member of the legislature, said, “No departments are sticking to a budget.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs is accusing the Liberals of plagiarizing portions of his party’s election platform.

Higgs made the accusation Friday during a campaign stop in Fredericton, where he said the Liberals appear to have no new ideas for health care.

The premier, who is seeking a third term in office, cited several similarities between pledges made by both parties and then pointed to his plan to change the way doctors are paid to provide incentives for them to see more patients.

Higgs said the Liberals have copied the Tory plan, and as proof he said a Liberal document on campaign costs — posted late Thursday on the Elections New Brunswick website — includes a link to a Progressive Conservative government news release about doctor incentives, dated Sept. 12.

Higgs told an impromptu news conference Friday morning the Liberal platform is “largely a copy” of what the Progressive Conservatives have been doing for health care. “What they’re promising is what we’re already doing, just not as good.”

The Tory leader went on to say his party’s plan to reform doctor pay would cost $25 million, adding that the Liberals have failed to put a price tag on their pledge. The Liberal costing document on the Elections New Brunswick website states: “The election commitment will not have financial implications for the province.”

Higgs said he wanted to know how that was possible. Then he answered his own question: “It’s because they are plagiarizing an announcement that I had already made.”

Liberal Leader Susan Holt said Higgs’s announcement on Sept. 12 was an official government pledge made before the election was called for Oct. 21.

“If (the plan) is covered in the current fiscal framework, it’s not new spending,” Holt said in an interview Friday. “I think the premier should focus on fixing the system. He’s focused on me and on being defensive when his record of failures in health care are clear.”

J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, N.B., said Higgs’s decision to attack the Liberal platform is a function of the fact that the latest opinion polls suggest the Tories and Liberals are in a very tight race.

“It’s been close for a while now,” Lewis said in an interview Friday. “To me, it’s not surprising that they are … not just defending their record, but trying to be on the offence. They know they’re in a very competitive race.”

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Green Party Leader David Coon was in Tracadie, N.B., where he announced a sustainable forestry plan. He said a Green government would share decision-making with First Nations, end herbicide spraying and halt large-scale clearcutting.

In Saint John, N.B., Holt said a Liberal government would overhaul the province’s property tax system in a bid to make home ownership more affordable. The Liberals have already announced a rent cap, as well as a commitment to build 30,000 new housing units and remove the provincial sales tax on new builds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

— With files from Michael MacDonald and Cassidy McMackon in Halifax.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

CUMBERLAND, B.C. – British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says his government would fast-track factory-built homes as part of its strategy to ease the province’s housing crisis.

At an election campaign stop on Vancouver Island, Eby said pre-built homes cut waste, reduce emissions, and advances in the industry mean the homes are “beautiful and high-quality.”

He said the process was “more like Lego” than normal construction.

“The idea is pretty straightforward. In a controlled factory environment, you can build faster, you can build with less waste and the homes that are built are more consistent and more efficient and it’s cheaper.”

A statement issued by the NDP on Friday said its government would work with the industry, municipalities and First Nations to create a provincewide framework so builders know what’s required in every community.

It said there would be a pre-approved set of designs to reduce the permitting process, and it would work with the industry to develop skills training needed to support prefabricated home construction.

The statement said Scandinavian countries had embraced factory-built homes, which “offer an alternative to the much slower, more costly process of building on-site.”

“By growing B.C.’s own factory-built home construction industry, everyone from multi-generational families to municipalities will be able to quickly build single homes, duplexes and triplexes on land they already own,” Eby said.

The party said legislation passed by the NDP government last year was a “game changer” for the factory-built home construction industry in the province, where there are currently 10 certified manufacturing plants.

Muchalat Construction Ltd. is one of them. Owner Tania Formosa said pre-approved structures speed up the building process considerably.

She said her company’s projects currently take 12 to 13 months to complete, from startup design to getting the house on site.

“If everything was in place and fast-tracked at the beginning and we were able to just fly along, it would probably take three months off the full schedule,” she said.

She said a main issue for modular manufacturers is that work gets stalled if they run into roadblocks with jurisdictions or BC Housing in the approval process.

“There’s no option for the manufacturer to start another project,” she said. “Having our products approved prior to the process would be amazing.”

She acknowledged the potential drawback of pre-approved designs creating a cookie-cutter look for some neighbourhoods.

“Unfortunately (what) happens in your jurisdiction, in your city, is it ends up looking a lot the same, but what are your priorities?”

Eby and his rivals, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, have all been rallying for support as the first week of the provincial election campaign draws to a close.

Rustad held a rally in Prince George Thursday night and was scheduled to make an announcement in Surrey on Friday.

Furstenau was in southeastern B.C. on Thursday to unveil mental health policies under a Green government. She stayed for a rally with Kootenay-Central candidate Nicole Charlwood in Creston.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

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