Liberal spending increase smaller than previous PC hikes

Premier Susan Holt's Liberal government is facing criticism from the Progressive Conservative (PC) opposition over its budget plans. The PCs claim that the Liberals are increasing the budget deficit through irresponsible spending. Holt's first budget shows a projected deficit of $549 million, the largest in over ten years. Despite the criticism, Finance Minister René Legacy argues that the Liberals' spending increase will be less than what the PCs had planned in their budgets from the previous years. Legacy emphasized that the spending trend is similar to when the PCs were in power and that the Liberals are being more cautious overall. The PCs, under former leader Blaine Higgs, raised spending by significant amounts in recent years. In 2022-23, they increased spending by around $900 million and continued this trend with further hikes. However, the Liberal budget sets a lower spending increase of $676 million for the next fiscal year, which is the smallest rise in five years. Economist Richard Saillant notes that the previous government's spending decisions created a structural deficit that makes it hard for the new government to quickly control spending. Meanwhile, both sides acknowledge that the slowing growth in government revenue is also causing the larger deficit. This growth from taxes and federal payments has decreased recently, partly due to a slowdown in population growth. In response to the claims about spending, PC Leader Glen Savoie admitted that Liberal spending may not be as excessive as it seems. However, he highlighted that the actual increase in health spending is much smaller than reported. Premier Holt has stated that while her government wants to balance the budget, the drop in revenue makes this difficult without major cuts. She pointed out that the Liberals are planning modest spending increases that are below the expected revenue growth in order to gradually lower the deficit. Legacy hopes to balance the budget by 2028, but he cautioned against overestimating this goal.