Budget cuts could hurt: N.S. finance minister
Posted Mar 30, 2012 06:43:05 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The province’s finance minister is reassuring Nova Scotians that the defence spending cuts in the federal Conservative’s 2012 budget may not have as much of an impact as first feared.
Graham Steele says there are 29,000 people in Nova Scotia who are paid by the federal government, with 50 to 60 per cent of them working in the military.
“We are reassured by two things stated in the federal budget,” Steele told reporters in Halifax Thursday evening. “The first is that the number of regular forces members will stay the same, which means the cuts will be felt elsewhere.”
The Department of Defence is facing the largest spending cut of $1.1 billion by 2014-15.
“The other thing in the documents that reassures us is the explicit statement that the effects of the reductions will be felt predominately in the national capital region,” said Steele. “Obviously, that causes us some concerns depending on how it all plays out because the armed forces are a critical element of Nova Scotia’s fabric as well as an important economic driver.”
The Minister also raised concerns about spending to ACOA being cut by nearly $18 million, Marine Atlantic by $11 million, Veterans Affairs by $67 million and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans by $79 million by 2014-15.
“At this stage, it’s really impossible to know exactly how that will play out on the ground, but it appears they will be suffering some significant reductions which could have a disproportionate impact on Nova Scotia,” said Steele.
However, there are indications that the federal shipbuilding project will not be affected.
“I specifically asked, and it appears, that there will be no impact from this federal budget to the national shipbuilding procurement strategy, which as everyone knows is of vital important to Nova Scotians and our future prosperity,” said Steele. “That is not absolutely concerned, but we are hoping that the Minister of National Defence, for example, will be able to confirm that for us.”
In a later news release, Defence Department spokesman Jay Paxson says the federal government is committed to the shipbuilding program.
