Higgs government plans to spend $673M on infrastructure

The Higgs government said it wanted stability in September's election campaign, and that's what it's delivering in its capital spending plan for next year.

The province's capital budget sets out spending of $673.4 million in 2021-22, with health, education and roads seeing amounts in the same ballpark as what was budgeted this year.

"We have been successful in managing our finances in the past and we will continue to be prudent with taxpayers' money," Finance Minister Ernie Steeves said as he tabled the budget in the legislature.

"Today's capital budget strikes a balance between our meeting financial obligations and supporting our economy."

The first Progressive Conservative capital budget in 2018 eliminated $200 million worth of planned infrastructure spending.

It allocated $600.6 million for capital spending, a total that ticked down to $599.2 million the following year.

In the coming year, $128.2 million will be spent on health care equipment, buildings and infrastructure, up from $123.9 million this year.

Education and Early Childhood Development will spend$72.6 million, up from $70.6 million this year.

And spending on highways, roads and bridges will increase to $307.7 million in 2021-22, up from $279.3 million in 2020-21.

$7.5M to design courthouse

Again this year the capital budget contains no specifics on individual projects,though Steeves told reporters there is $7.5 million to begin design work on a new Fredericton courthouse.

An earlier Liberal plan for a new courthouse in the capital was cancelled by the Tories in 2018.

"We have made strides in recent years to improve our fiscal standing, and COVID-19 has upended this progress," Steeves said.

"This does not mean that we should no longer be fiscally disciplined. Rather, the pandemic has highlighted the need to always be diligent with the public finances of the province."

Opposition Liberal Leader Roger Melanson welcomed the slight increases in spending but again accused Premier Blaine Higgs of not taking advantage of federal infrastructure funds that would cover 50 or even 80 per cent of the cost of some projects.

"The provincial government and the premier keeps refusing, and refusing, and refusing," Melanson said.

A second-quarter budget update released last month projected that the province is on track for a $183.3 million deficit this year, largely due to lower revenues and higher expenses related to the pandemic.