The Minister of Finance is comfortable with the progress his government is making on deficit reduction.

While spending is up, so too is revenue. Overall, Tom Osborne says the deficit was lower at March 31, 2019 than forecast to be in Budget 2018.

Opposition Finance Critic Tony Wakeham doesn’t think government will be able to balance the books by 2022/23 as it has committed to doing. However, Minister Osborne says he is not going to close a hospital in order to return to surplus.

The deficit stands at $552-million. Osborne says finance officials did a good job as their projections were one-half of one percentage point out on an $8-billion budget.

He says they are $130-million better than where they thought they would be in Budget 2018.

Earlier Story

The deficit is higher than government had anticipated even though revenue grew – and the opposition is concerned.

The final numbers from the audited statement of Public Accounts show that expenses were about $100-million more in 2018-19 than projected in Budget 2018. Revenue was up as well so the overall effect was an increase of $30-million in the deficit.

Finance Critic Tony Wakeham says he can see a difference in the tone of government from making a solid commitment to returning to balanced budget by 2022-23 to “hoping” that government returns to balanced budget. He’s also concerned that the Liberals will not spell out how it intends to reduce $617-million in expenditures by 2022-23.

Finance Minister Tom Osborne says the numbers show that his administration is 99 per cent on target with its financial plans.