Highlights of New Brunswick provincial budget

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Finance Minister Cathy Rogers tabled an $9.4 billion budget for 2017-18 on Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights:

– A projected deficit of $192 million, with a projection of a balanced budget by 2020-21. The deficit no longer includes the contingency fund.

– The provincial debt will reach $14.4 billion by the end of March 2018, or about $19,000 for every man, woman and child in New Brunswick.

– Servicing the public debt will cost $701 million, the government’s fifth highest expense.

– The province will invest an additional $56 million in education, including a doubling of the budget for daycare assistance starting Jan. 1, 2018.

– Spending is up by 3.6 per cent, while revenues being raised through taxation are up four per cent.

– Spending on tourism programs is going up almost 18 per cent, to about $60.2 million.