The province’s Finance Minister is confident the budget re-introduced in the House of Assembly this week will pass as is.

Tom Osborne brought down the exact same budget and speech on Tuesday that was delivered just before the May election. He says the budget maintains a return to surplus in 2022-23.

Osborne says he believes there is a spirit of collaboration in the House that will benefit all people of the province, though he cautions against more spending, or risk another fiscal crisis.

He is willing to working with Opposition Leader Ches Crosbie on a list of eight Tory recommendations for the budget – but could not make any guarantees they would be implemented in 2019.

For his part, Crosbie says he agrees with government that balancing the books and achieving surplus by 2022-2023 is paramount.

He says there should still be room for negotiation to accommodate the priorities heard from the electorate during the campaign.

NDP Leader Alison Coffin says what she’s hearing sounds promising and collaboration is key.