New Brunswick Finance Minister Ernie Steeves poses with his 2024-25 budget in Fredericton on Monday, March 18, 2024. Steeves will release the budget in the legislature today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray
FREDERICTON – The New Brunswick government is boasting that today’s $13.3-billion budget includes the most spending on health care in provincial history.
Yet the amount set aside for the health network is only $2 million more than what will have been spent when the current fiscal year ends on March 31.
Finance Minister Ernie Steeves projects the government will spend $3.8 billion on health in the 2024-25 fiscal year – up from the $3.6 billion budgeted last spring but virtually the same as what was actually spent, according to revised figures.
This is the minister’s final budget before the provincial election later this year, but it avoids new voter-friendly measures, such as tax cuts.
Government expenditures are projected to increase by 6.4 per cent in a budget that is estimated to have a surplus of about $41 million.
Provincial gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 0.7 per cent in 2024.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2024.
