The province’s Liberals are out with their 2020-21 budget.
Budget 2020-21 estimates a surplus of $55 million from $11.60 billion in revenue and $11.54 billion in expenses.
The province also projects balanced budgets for the next three years.
The document, touted as the fifth consecutive balanced budget, re-iterates the $1.04 billion dollars in capital spending announced last week.
During her speech on Tuesday, Finance and Treasury Board Minister Karen Casey said that Nova Scotians have flagged access to quality health care as their number one priority.
“The overall investment in the health care sector has grown to 4.82 billion dollars,” she said. “Budget 2020-21 includes 86.1 million dollars in response to increased demand to services.”
The government is also committing 75.3 million this year for the new Doctor’s Master Agreement, which aims to improve the recruitment and retention of medical professionals.
Finance and Treasury Board Minister Karen Casey says the move will mean that family, emergency and anesthesia doctors will be the highest paid in Atlantic Canada.
Other spending initiatives include a 16.3 million for the operating grant for the Yarmouth to Bar Harbour ferry, and a change to the low-income threshold for the Nova Scotia Child Benefit which will now apply to families with incomes below $34,000, which the government says will benefit almost 28,000 families and 49,000 children.
