P.E.I.'s surplus grows to almost $14M

P.E.I.'s surplus has grown from $4.4 million last Novemberto $13.8 million, Finance Minister Heath MacDonald said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Charlottetown updating the province's fiscal outlook.

Last spring the province projected a surplus of $1.5 million.

The numbersshowedan improvement in the treasury'sbottom line, and the province committed to spending some of its growing surplus revenues after facing criticism for failing to do that last year.

"Things are booming," MacDonald said.

"But it is in all fairness the hard-working people of P.E.I. that are contributing to this. So we have to ensure that we put our expenditures back into the programs that matter most to them."

Give and take

Overall government revenues are now expected to come in $39 million over budget, with significant increases in tax revenues.

• Corporate income tax revenue up $11.6 million over budget estimates.
• Personal income taxes up $10.3 million.
• HST up $8.5 million.

Meanwhile expenditures are up $27 million, including an overall increase of $6.7 million in program spending, together with losses for the Prince Edward Island Agricultural Insurance Corporation estimated at $16 million after eight per cent of the Island's potato crop was unable to be harvested.

Focus on spending

The focus on spending some of the growing surplus comes after the province posted a surprise $75 million surplus in the 2017-18 fiscal year.

That money was used to pay off some of the province's debt, prompting some criticism that more should have been spent on programs.

"We've done a tremendous amount of work in poverty reduction," MacDonald told CBC News. "We also have health care that's growing, education that's continuously growing.

"It's pretty easy to spend it," MacDonald said of demands on the treasury.

The current fiscal year ends on March31, but government will not have final figures available until October when the province's audited financial statements are released.

P.E.I. works with an annual budget of just over $2 billion.

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