Federal money for affordable housing is in provincial budget, minister says

After 24 hours of mixed signals, New Brunswick's social development minister says new federal funding for affordable housing is in the provincial budget and she should be able to start spending it April 1.

Dorothy Shephard says the first instalment of $299 million in federal money over 10 years is part of the province's spending plan. 

"Yes, there is money in this budget for housing," she told reporters.

That's despite an overall reduction in what the province will spend in 2019-20 on housing services. 

At first, the new Progressive Conservative government was unable to explain whether the federal dollars were part of the $91.4 million allocated to housing in the budget presented Tuesday by Finance Minister Ernie Steeves.

Officials briefing journalists in a media lockup said the money would only show up next year in the 2020-21 budget.

And Steeves had difficulty explaining how the budget cuts to social development programs, including housing, would affect New Brunswickers.

"I'm going to have to refer you to Minister Shephard on that one, I'm sorry," he told reporters Tuesday. Shephard was not made available for interviews Tuesday. 

But Wednesday in question period, Shephard revealed that the province has sent federal officials its plan for how it will use the money during the first three years of the housing agreement.

She would not tell reporters how much of the $299 million would be spent in 2019-20.

"Until I have that [federal] approval, I can't release numbers," she said. 

She said the money will be "backloaded" into later years rather than spread evenly over each of the 10 years and how much is spent next year will depend in part on what the province wants to do. The province has not made public how it plans to use the money.

Shephard said, however, that she believes she can start spending it April 1 even if the federal government hasn't approved the plan. 

"I'm going to have to figure that out, but my instinct is yes," she said.

Liberal MLA Cathy Rogers said the PC plan should have been finalized by now, especially with two temporary emergency shelters in Fredericton and Moncton facing potential closure at the end of March. 

"The implementation plan should be revealed, technically, before April 1 so that on April 1, people can start applying for some of this housing money," Rogers said.

Ottawa and New Brunswick signed the new 10-year agreement last July, when the previous Liberal government was still in power.

Rogers said the plan at the time was to use the money to address a spike in homelessness rates. The Liberals planned to use the money to help people on the streets, seniors with low incomes, disabled people and women and children fleeing violence.

But in February, Shephard said the new government was facing "hurdles" to reaching an agreement with Ottawa on how the money should be spent.

She said Wednesday that those hurdles have been overcome.

"We need to wait on the federal approval, but we think those wrinkles were ironed out," she said.

The new 10-year agreement will replace another federal-provincial housing deal that is expiring and Shephard said that allows funding to continue from the end of one deal into the next. 

That deal saw the two governments each contribute $3.9 million per year over each of the last five years, ending in 2018-19.

Shephard also disputed that there have been cuts to several programs in her department.

Housing services will get $91.4 million in the coming year, according to budget estimates tabled Tuesday.

That's slightly below the $92.4 million the Liberals allocated in their last budget, but a significant reduction from the $100.2 million the department actually ended up spending. 

The Liberals are describing it as an $8.8 million cut, but Shephard said comparing the coming year's spending to the larger $100.2 million figure is misleading.

"There are sometimes unexpected expenditures that all governments have to deal with," she said. "We can't not respond to urgencies." 

A few minutes later, however, she said the inflated $100.2 million spent in 2018-19 was due to the Liberal government's philosophy.

"They had a very generous attitude towards tax-and-spend," she said.