The finance minister is expected to announce the date for the new government’s first budget sometime this week.
Whenever the budget occurs, it will be the latest date on which it will be tabled in NL since 2021, when it came down at the end of May because of the pandemic.
What’s in store remains to be seen.
The PC government campaigned on a platform of improved health care, supplying the resources needed to make communities safer, and affordability, yet it is also facing a record billion dollar deficit, and continued economic uncertainty caused by global upheaval.
While some have speculated that Premier Tony Wakeham may introduce austerity measures to get the deficit in check as he begins his mandate, Memorial University political scientist Russell Williams is cautioning against that approach.
“My advice would be, don’t go down that road,” says Williams. “The harsh budget option is one that is bad in public policy terms for the province, but also politically damaging potentially to the government.” He says if there are financial concerns, government does have mechanisms to address those issues over the long term, “but to just slash and burn in your first budget, that would be a huge mistake.”
Meanwhile, Wakeham says he won’t be balancing the budget this year or next year.
“You can’t cut your way to prosperity, you have to grow your way to prosperity,” says the premier. “That’s what we have been focused on for the past six months and that’s what we will focus on for the next four years.”
Meanwhile, NDP leader Jim Dinn calls it “problematic” that government hasn’t tabled its budget yet.
He wonders if government will “jam the time up so much that….(they’re) not going to get a fulsome debate.”
He says the delay “doesn’t speak well” when they have people waiting for answers on things like housing, education, and affordability. On those issues, Dinn has been told “wait for the budget,” but he quips back that “right now we’re waiting for an announcement of when the budget will be.”
