Big spending on health care and housing at centre of P.E.I. capital budget
CBC
Health care infrastructure and housing are leading the increases in spending in another record capital budget for P.E.I.
Finance Minister Jill Burridge tabled the document in the legislature Tuesday afternoon, and it was posted online a short time later.
Spending in this year's budget is a big step up over last year's, which was itself a record. The government estimates it will spend $368.8 million this year, 20 per cent more than last year's estimate.
Record population growth is leading to increased needs when it comes to health, housing and education, Burridge said. That, combined with "a lot of old infrastructure" in the province, justifies the need for increased spending, she said.
"The pressures are intense," Burridge told media in a lockup before the budget presentation. "We have significant challenges before us."
The lack of places to live is just one of those pressures that's been building to a crisis point since 2019.
The province estimates thousands of units are required immediately to catch up with the current need, and more than 2,000 a year just to keep up with projected population growth in the years ahead.
The budget provides another $8.8 million for the P.E.I. Housing Corporation, a 14.3 per cent increase.
That money will create 560 new units over the five-year plan covered by this budget.
"We have to lean on private industry," Burridge said, in response to a question about where the other thousands of required rental units will come from.
"The first part of the year they were slowing down, but they're really starting to ramp up now."
The province is continuing to bring in programs, such as the removal of HST from rental housing construction, to support industry in creating new housing, said Burridge.
Meanwhile, provincial capital spending projected for last year is forecast to come in well over what was budgeted 12 months ago.
There was a overspend of about $13 million, driven by more than $29 million in spending in the Transportation and Infrastructure Department.
A Toronto man is facing potential deportation to Cambodia after being sentenced last year on drug trafficking charges in the N.W.T.
After more than two years of fractured diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit India in the coming weeks as both countries look to diversify trading partners in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
A city committee has voted to waive more than $3 million in development charges for a planned 24-storey tower slated to bring scores of affordable housing units to London's Old East Village.
Even for some Republicans who’ve been staunch supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, the move by the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve and its chair Jerome Powell is a red line that should not be crossed.
The effects of a low pressure system tearing through Newfoundland and Labrador are being felt across the province on Monday.
A southwestern Nova Scotia community in mourning over the death of a 13-year-old killed in a dog attack gathered on Sunday to remember the boy who loved riding his bike and used to share his lunch money with other children.
A witness in a Moncton double murder trial testified Monday that the man accused of the crimes admitted to the killings when they were in prison together.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada’s first city budget includes an average residential property tax rate hike of nearly four per cent — beyond last year's rate of inflation — to help pay for its $7.7 billion budget.
The Tories are distancing themselves from a board member over social media comments he made after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot an American woman in Minneapolis.
A Saskatoon judge says a bus driver who mixed alcohol and pain killers while driving a charter bus with 52 children aboard posed an "outrageous" risk.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is set to join Prime Minister Mark Carney as he travels to China and meets with the country's president this week.
The lawyer representing award-winning photojournalist Amber Bracken in her lawsuit against the RCMP said police wrongly characterized Bracken as an “occupier” instead of the clearly-identified journalist that she was when they arrested at the site of a pipeline protest in northern British Columbia.
Days after Calgary’s mayor urged sparing no expense to build a replacement water main due to a pair of catastrophic breaks in 18 months, one city councillor is advising caution.