Williams unveils $800M stimulus package for N.L.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams says a new package of infrastructure spending announced Wednesday will help the province sail through troubled economic times.

The package which includes massive repairs and upgrades to highways, hospitals and schools will involve about $800 million in spending.

"If that's not stimulation, I don't know what is," Williams told reporters in St. John's. "I'm getting stimulated just talking about it here," he chuckled.

While specific details of the spending plan have not yet been released, the package involves almost every arm of government.

"This is a level of infrastructure funding never seen before in the province's history and helps further ensure our province is equipped to stand strong and forge ahead as masters of our own destiny," Williams said.

Components of the program had been expected, as the government has made multi-year commitments to large-scale infrastructure spending.

Williams, though, said the government is increasing spending to help add greater fuel to the provincial economy. About $130 million is targeted for Labrador, which has been reeling from production cuts at two iron ore mines in western Labrador.

The announcement comes as Newfoundland and Labrador, which has been posting record-setting and eye-popping budget surpluses, is preparing for a massive deficit, largely because the value of oil has dropped sharply since last fall.

No date has been set for the next provincial budget, and officials said too many variables commodity prices and currency exchange among them are still at play. Nonetheless, officials said the next deficit may range between $450 million and $1.2 billion.

As daunting as that is, Finance Minister Jerome Kennedy said the goal of the infrastructure package is to serve as an economic bridge, to carry workers through to a period when oil prices rebound enough to put the province's books in the black.

"We're told by economists that the economy will start to improve towards the end of 2009, so we have to try to get the work out there, get people employed during the downturn," Kennedy said.

Williams and Kennedy said it was important to kick the program into gear well before the budget, so that outdoor work can begin as soon as winter is over.

The package, which will draw funds from the 2009-2010 budget year, includes an increase of $285 million over last year's spending.

A government release said the "investment plan" will translate into 5,400 person-years of employment, although it noted that not all of the jobs will be new.

The Department of Transportation and Works will handle the single greatest component of the spending, with more than $309 million on repairs and maintenance to highways and regional roads.

The government, which has also come under pressure to fix leaky hospital roofs and mould-afflicted schools, is putting $163 million into the health-care system, while an additional $155 million is being targeted on education infrastructure.