Premier Rodney MacDonald should stop leaking spending announcements and just release the budget already, say both opposition parties.
The Tories announced Thursday budget increases to the health and education departments, the latest in a slew of spending announcements
Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said the Tories are just trying to get publicity.
“They’ve been scrambling to get some stories in the news over the last number of days, and this is just another one,” McNeil said.
“They should be doing the right thing, which is introducing a budget, allow Nova Scotians to assess the entire picture. And then we make a decision. Doing it piecemeal is not the way to be running this province.”
NDP Leader Darrell Dexter agreed, saying that the premier was “budgeting by news release,” adding that announcements on their own were useless without the overall fiscal plan.
“One of the reasons we have budget estimates is so we can examine on a line-by-line basis where that money’s going,” said Dexter, who also said the lower increase on health spending will have negative effects.
“What the government didn’t announce today is things like how many surgeries are going to be cancelled or how long wait lists are going to be extended.
