Health Care funding is getting a $200 million dollar shot in the arm.
Finance Minister Karen Casey says the funding highlights the fourth consecutive balanced budget from the provincial government.
“A legacy of this government is our commitment to taking a one in a generation opportunity to improve healthcare infrastructure.”
Casey says government is committed to addressing health care.
“As healthcare needs change, we must adapt to ensure the buildings and services are coordinated and meeting the needs of people today and for the future.”
The budget also includes $10 million to develop collaborative care teams, and $4 million to add 25 more residency seats at Dalhousie Medical School.
Southwest Nova Scotia will see its share of the provincial pie in funding for schools in Yarmouth, Clare and Wedgeport, money for the expansion of the South Shore Regional Hospital emergency department, investment in the Lunenburg Waterfront and $13.8 million to operate the Maine ferry.
NDP Leader Gary Burrill was not impressed by government’s latest budget.
“It’s a dumpster full of disappointment. Here we are in the middle of a healthcare crisis where we have our emergency departments, all over the province unable to function properly because they are jammed.”
Burrill says the reason for ER overcrowding is hospitals can’t discharge patients to nursing homes because there is no space.
And this budget doesn’t provide any new nursing home facilities.
Burrill says government missed the mark in a number of areas.
“The whole budget is a bucket of band-aids. We think about the present climate emergency. The whole world is riveted to what governments are going to do to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and we have a budget speech that doesn’t even use the word climate.”
Burrill also wonders why there is no federal funding funding for the Maine Ferry despite Nova Scotians electing two Liberal majority governments and all Liberal Members of Parliament.
He’s also concerned this budget’s paltry increases to minimum wage and income assistance doesn’t do enough to help low-income Nova Scotians.
Does the Premier recognize that investing in emergency services without investing in long-term care to free up space in our hospitals and ERs could have the effect of more ER overcrowding? – @GaryBurrill #nspoli #cbpoli
— Nova Scotia NDP (@NSNDP) March 26, 2019
Nova Scotia Tables Fourth Consecutive Balanced Budgethttps://t.co/JI3wRjREzO pic.twitter.com/HhBvx6qP4Y
— Nova Scotia Gov. (@nsgov) March 26, 2019
*Photo NS Legislature TV
Reported by: Ed Halverson
Twitter: @edwardhalverson
E-mail: halverson.ed@radioabl.ca
