Finance Minister Siobhan Coady is defending government’s decision to include over half a billion dollars in revenue from a tobacco settlement in this year’s budget as part of “normal public accounting standards.”

Opposition leader Tony Wakeham questioned Coady in the House of Assembly earlier today about the $520-million, which will be paid to government over the coming decades yet, has been included in this year’s budget.

Coady argues they have certainty that the money will be received and likens it to Atlantic Accord money that was negotiated for the province in 2019.

That didn’t sit well with the Opposition.

PC MHA Lin Paddock, an accountant, got into a heated exchange with the Finance Minister.

Paddock asked Premier John Hogan if he will fire the finance minister, accusing Coady of “cooking the books.”

Coady was outraged, calling Paddock’s comments “atrocious,” and “insulting to all the accountants” involved in preparing the budget.

Coady says government has a legal obligation to recognize that they know what money will become available to them.