Budget watch

It’s one of the most challenging feats facing any provincial government: coming up with a budget during lean times that shows prudent fiscal management while offering few nuggets of spending optimism.

So on Tuesday, when Premier Dwight Ball’s Liberal government tables its fiscal plan for the coming year, it will be interesting to see what’s on the table, and what’s not, and the effects it will have on our pocketbooks.

At budget time, governments are damned whatever they do. Offer too many goodies and they’re accused of being spendthrift. Raise taxes and make deep cuts and they’ll be called punitive and out of touch with the people they’re supposed to serve.

Ball has already signalled it will be a stay-thecourse budget, with assurances — for creditors’ sake as much anyone else’s — that the province is not about to topple off a fiscal cliff.

Lt.-gov. Frank Fagan struck a frugal tone in his March 13th speech to the throne: “Quite simply, we must continue to do better with less and build on the work that we have undertaken over the past two years.”

Here are a few of the things it might contain: Provincial ferries will likely surface, based on the fact that they’re operating at an average of less than 50 per cent capacity and the earful government heard during pre-budget consultations.

The province will provide money to move Family Court from King’s Bridge Road to Portugal Cove Road — already announced — presumably offset by the sale of the current Family Court premises.

Money to replace the Waterford Hospital is expected to be a key item — money budgeted last year wasn’t spent — given the mounting pressure to replace the 1855 structure with a facility equipped to deliver 21st-century mental health care.

The budget will have a strong focus on health, with plans for a new Public Health Act and a new Healthy Living Action Plan, with an emphasis on community-based delivery.

Watch, as well, for a redesigned approach to providing mental health and addictions services, and money for programs aimed at keeping seniors healthy in their own homes for as long as possible.

The pending legalization of marijuana in Canada this year means there will be money in the pot for pot.

And while there is speculation the province might once more offer financial support to the Corner Brook pulp and paper mill — reeling from new tariffs, courtesy of U.S. President Donald Trump — there will likely be no significant expenditure in that regard.

What’s most important to many people, of course, is how their household finances will be affected.

So, on Tuesday, when opposition parties and special interest groups come out with guns blazing, each defending their own corner and their own members’ interests, The Telegram will be keeping an eye on your money.

Watch for comprehensive coverage.