The Finance Minister says the Moody’s report released today does not represent a failure in the province’s deficit reduction plan.
Tom Osborne says Moody’s is concerned that government’s plan to return to surplus is ambitious, but no one said it would be easy.
He says they need the cooperation of all members of the Legislature to be able to meet the target of returning to surplus by 2022-23.
Osborne says this doesn’t represent a failure of the deficit reduction plan.
Been able to maintain budget targets. They are concerned that the plan to return to surplus is ambitious. Need cooperation of all 40 members of HoA to meet targets. @VOCMNEWS #nlpoli pic.twitter.com/2xA2kui9VW
— Ben Murphy VOCM (@BenMurphyVOCM) July 25, 2019
When asked if he needed to make any long-term changes to the plan to make the target achievable, Osborne essentially said no.
He says they’ve done a number of things that have year-over-year improvements and cost-savings like the removal of severance.
The Finance Minister says they’ve made changes and found savings throughout government through attrition.
Osborne says much of the savings are not only diminished through the consumer price index, but gobbled up in increased costs for debt-servicing, which is primarily attributable to Muskrat Falls.
