Pictou MLA says budget is a Band-Aid for past Liberal cuts

Pictou East MLA Tim Houston says the budget presented by the Nova Scotia Liberals is a Band-Aid budget.

Like any budget, it includes some good and some bad, the Progressive Conservative finance critic said Thursday after the budget release.

Some positives are more money for foster care families, personal tax exemptions and funding for rural roads.

But he said much of what is proposed is just a cover-up for cuts from previous budgets as Premier Stephen McNeil appears poised to call an election.

“The biggest stuff in the budget seems to be Band-Aids,” he said.

As example he said the Liberals are putting more money into the film industry this year after cuts in previous years.

The same is true of rural roads. He said for the last three years funding for these roads have been cut. They’re now at the point where no one can deny they need some serious repair, he said. While $10 million a year to help repair them is a start, he said, it will take more than that to get them back to the shape they should be in.

What’s missing from the budget, he said, was anything that truly indicates help to grow the economy.

“I just think that we need a strong vision for the province and someone who says this is how we’re going to grow the province,” he said. “I didn’t see it in the budget today.”

While there’s $14 million funding for increasing Internet access in remote areas, he said it isn’t enough for every person in the province to be able to have access to proper Internet.

“As long as we have communities in Nova Scotia that don’t have access to the Internet, our economy is never going to flourish,” he said.

Another point he found disappointing was that the Department of Health had underspent their budget during the last fiscal year.

“They underspent their budget by holding back those things that matter to people.”

He said it seems as if the government is turning a blind eye to the state of health care, with the premier recently saying there is no crisis.

“That to me is a disconnect,” Houston said.

Houston, like many, expects an election to be called within the week. While he said he couldn’t go into specific platform items for his party, he indicated some issues of importance to him personally are access to mental health services and ensuring that rural roads get a proper investment.

■ Nova Scotia is bringing in a $25.9-million surplus, the second in a row, on a budget that projects $10.5 billion in spending.

■ Taxes will be reduced an average of $160 for 500,000 low and middle-income earners by increasing the basic personal exemption by up to $3,000 for taxable income up to $75,000 effective Jan. 1, 2018.

■ An additional 60,000 people will no longer pay provincial income taxes by Jan. 1 next year.

■ Assistance to the Nova Scotia film industry will go up $12.8 million, one of a number of previously announced spending increases.

■ An additional $5.1 million will be provided for home care, and there will be a $3.2 million increase for the food budget and recreational programs in long term care facilities.

■ Taxes on small business income have been reduced at an estimated annual cost of about $14 million.

■ The Liberals spent $129.6 million in the months leading up to the end of the fiscal year for 2016-17, reducing the size of the potential surplus.