Nova Scotia ends fiscal year with $116M surplus — after projecting a $500M deficit

The Nova Scotia government is ending the 2022-23 fiscal year with a $116-million surplus rather than the half-billion dollar deficit projected in the budget that was tabled on March 29, 2022.

The shift comes as a result of almost $2 billion in extra revenue and despite a record amount of spending outside the Progressive Conservative government's fiscal plan. 

According to figures released Tuesday, the Houston government spent a whopping $1.7 billion in additional appropriations, most of it since last December and through the spring. That's the most any cabinet has ever approved.

Members of the executive council have the power to approve spending over and above what is voted on by the legislature, but normally that's to deal with unexpected or unforeseen expenses.

The extra money went to beef up relief or support programs, and for student loans and bursaries, for Hurricane Fiona clean-up costs and to fund a land swap related to improvements to Highway 103.

There was also a one-time $68-million adjustment "to cover future asset retirement obligations," including paying for possible asbestos removal on government buildings.

'Revenues coming in unexpectedly'

Finance Minister Allan MacMaster defended the extra spending to reporters briefed on his department's latest figures.

"We have these revenues coming in unexpectedly, but we also have a need to try to look after people," said MacMaster who explained the revenue windfall as being "due to a growing population and some of the dynamics we're seeing in the economy."

"People are working for higher wages in some cases, and some of that is being driven by the economic realities that we're seeing, like inflation."

Opposition weighs in

Opposition leaders were critical of cabinet's decision to authorize so much extra spending, and accused the Houston government of not doing enough to help the province's most vulnerable people.

"This government is a tax-and-spend government," said Liberal Leader Zach Churchill. "It's very odd for a conservative government to be acting that way."

"We have an opportunity now, with more money in the coffers, to actually give some of that back to Nova Scotians and invest this money in ways that are going to help lift people up who are really struggling to make ends meet right now."

NDP Leader Claudia Chender took aim at cabinet's unprecedented spending spree.

"The budget that was tabled immediately after COVID had something like $300 million, which at the time was the biggest number of [additional] appropriations we had seen," she said. "So that number has skyrocketed, exponentially."

"They could call us back to the legislature and table that and we could discuss it, if we had a legislature that sat any normal amount of time, like our colleagues around the country."

Premier Tim Houston has officially sent notice, through the Speaker's office, that the fall sitting of the Nova Scotia legislature will start Oct. 12.