Today was Budget Day in New Brunswick. As expected, the province’s focus on tackling COVID and ensuring the necessary supports for residents and businesses to emerge successfully from the pandemic far outweighed the need for a balanced budget.
Indeed, Finance Minister Ernie Steeves was clear that the focus was on a strong recovery, noting in his first Budget address of the new government “it is not the budget I want to deliver, but it is the budget we [New Brunswick] need.” With that, the spending taps were opened, ushering in a provincial deficit of $244.8M in 2021-2022, rising to $296M in 2022-2023 before falling to $220M in 2023-2024, just in time for the next election.
The government projects a 1.2% increase in revenue in 2021, to be outpaced by an increase of 3.4% in spending, primarily due to COVID supports.
To read the full budget speech, click here.
To review the Main Estimates of the budget, click here.
COVID and Healthcare
Budget 2021-2022 commits over $64M in COVID pandemic spending on priority areas such as contact tracing, immunizations and virtual healthcare delivery (TeleHealth 811). It also provides $11M in new funding to assist in recruiting new physicians to the province – as of December 31, 2020, over 44K New Brunswickers were on the wait-list for a family doctor, an additional $7M to address mental health, and funding for 3 older adult homes – representing 148 new long-term care beds in Moncton, Fredericton and Miramichi respectively. Further, today’s budget provides $3M in new funding for addiction and mental health services, as well as $30M to help address priority areas in Regional Health Authorities.
Education
Budget 2021-2022 provides $1M to continue the province’s laptop subsidy program and an additional $1.2M to ensure the requisite technical support workers remain in schools to support teachers and students. It also invests $1.7M to support the development and delivery of distance learning opportunities. The budget also honours the government’s commitment to raise the salaries of early childhood educators from $16/hour to $19/hour.
Private Sector Investments
The government used its 2021-2022 budget to announce a $20M multi-year strategy to support the development of the small modular nuclear reactors sector – a priority highlighted by Premier Blaine Higgs in his February 2021 State of the Province Address. Additionally, the government will provide $3M to buttress the province’s broadband network and, as a means to assist the hard-hit tourism sector, announced a continuation of the travel incentive program which reimburses residents up to 20% of their expenditures for travel within the province.
Finance Minister Ernie Steeves also highlighted in his speech the need to diversify New Brunswick’s exports, citing that 90% of its exported goods go to the United States versus a Canadian average of 73%. To that end, Budget 2021-2022 commits to a multi-year investment to establish New Brunswick’s physical presence in India and the United Kingdom as a means to promote the province’s exports as well as an ideal location in which to live, invest and study.
Communities and Environment
There was bad news for drivers in Budget 2021-2022, as gas and diesel prices are set to rise by 2.21 cents/litre and 2.68 cents/litre, respectively as of April 1, 2021. This is due to the requirement by the federal government to increase tax on carbon-emitting products to $40/tonne from $30/tonne. The government also announced that it will transfer $36M to the Climate Change Fund which will aid in funding R&D in advanced nuclear technology; a redevelopment of Fundy Quay; reconstruction of Saint Andrews wharf; and, in completing 75% of actions in the New Brunswick Climate Change Action Plan by December 2021.
In his Budget Address, Minister Steeves also highlighted that the province has reduced carbon emissions by 34% since 2005 and remains on track to meet its share of the national target by 2030. While he did not provide a date, the Minister did reference that New Brunswick’s Out-Based Pricing System will require large carbon emitters to reduce their emissions intensity by 10% by 2030.
With the pandemic exacerbating homelessness in the province and the government in the midst of a review of current conditions in local rental markets, Budget 2021-2022 provides an investment of $10.M to increase the inventory of affordable housing across New Brunswick. It also provides a total of just over $2M to assist the RCMP crime reduction unit to reduce the illegal drug supply in the province, and a further $2M to establish a safer communities program with the goal of dismantling and disrupting organized crime and the underground market for cannabis, alcohol and contraband tobacco.
Cannabis NB
For those looking for answers about the future of Cannabis NB, there will be disappointment. Budget 2021-2022 makes no reference to the future of the crown corporation, though Minister Steeves has indicated Cannabis NB’s future would be discussed by Cabinet on Thursday, March 18, and to expect an update afterwards. That being said, the budget was drafted assuming no changes at Cannabis NB with projected revenues of $11M.
A coalition of New Brunswick-based licensed cannabis producers, Roger Augustine, New Brunswick Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and the mayors of the 8 cities across the province have called on the provincial government to pause any decision on privatization and to conduct consultations with provincial stakeholders fearing that a move to a single source private monopoly will mean negative impacts on the industry’s 2000+ workers, less revenue-sharing with municipalities and a reduced profit for New Brunswick taxpayers.
Budget 2021-2022 also announced $650K for the province’s Cannabis Education & Awareness Fund, designed to contribute to research and programs that promote harm reduction, education, prevention and responsible use of cannabis. The fund is supported by 2% of the gross sales of cannabis from suppliers to Cannabis NB.
Gender Impact Assessment
For the first time ever, the government released a gender impact statement outlining Gender-Based Analysis+ impact of specific budget measures. This statement is meant to act as a starting point for publishing gender-based information and aims to show the government’s commitment to expand its approach to gender budgeting.
