Liberals offer no answers on how $261M education fund will work

New Brunswick's PC opposition is trying to solve a $261 million mystery.

Tory MLA Ross Wetmore devoted part of a legislative committee hearing Wednesday to trying to find out who's in charge of the Liberal government's new Education and New Economy Fund.

The announcement of the fund was a highlight of Premier Brian Gallant's State of the Province speech in January.

• Gallant promises 50-50 split between spending cuts, tax hikes

But three weeks later, Education Minister Serge Rousselle was offering few details on how the fund will be managed and who will decide where the money goes.

"Of the $261 million, who's going to be the manager of the fund?" Wetmore asked.

"Do we know who is going to decide how the money is spent? Is it a cabinet committee? Or is it individual ministers?"

Rousselle said he would have more answers in April, when the Liberals' 10-year education plan is released.

Budget documents show that existing programs in the departments of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries; Education and Early Childhood Development; Environment and Local Government; Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour; and the Regional Development Corporation will be part of the fund.

Those programs are being grouped together because "we want a strategic, coordinated approach," Rousselle told Wetmore.

Even so, Rousselle also said the Education Department will continue to oversee the parts of the fund that come under the department.

Most of the $261 million fund is money for existing programs, though the Liberals are budgeting $8.8 million in the coming year and $15 million in the following year to implement their education plan. They've also committed $4.5 million for a new literacy strategy.

Rousselle told reporters he'd be able to answer questions on who is responsible for the fund "in the future."

PC education critic Gary Crossman was left scratching his head.

"We can't get the details, we don't know how it's being managed, we don't know where it's going, and we do need to know that now," he said.

At Gallant's speech last month, "the fund was there, it was good to go, and it sounded like things were planned," Crossman said. "Today we're finding out otherwise."