Catch Up over Coffee 3/28

28 March, 2022: Quick Economic Development news from the past week so you can feel up-to-date before finishing that Monday Morning cup.

Last week Nova Scotia released unprecedented investment in capital spending to ensure Nova Scotians have greater access to modern hospitals and medical equipment, schools, highways, and other improved infrastructure. Provincial business news comes to a crawl this time of year, as the government looks to work out the budget for 2022-2023. We’ll know more as we enter into April, but a few aspects have become clear.

Largest Capital Plan

Finance Minister, Allan MacMaster, released the capital plan last Wednesday, with another year of the building plan hitting the $1-Billion mark. Specifically, $1.5-Billion total, the province is stating this unprecedented budget amount has many factors, such as increasing oil/fuel costs.

Why is this not showing the entire budget?

The government tends to initially release an overall capital plan first, to show what the “big ticket” items are. It’s easier for them to agree on these first, and then hash out the little guys. This year, the big three are (no shocker):

• Hospitals/Healthcare
• Schools
• Roads

Just under $80-Million will be going towards the NSCC Marconi Campus construction in Sydney; so we can expect that this project will maintain full-steam ahead.

What about Tourism?

This week the actual budget is set to be released, which will hopefully announce where other monies are headed, such as grants. This will also be more specific on individual allocated areas. If there’s additional funding going into tourism, this is where/when it’ll be announced. Individual governmental department business plans have to be released during this time, which will have a clear break-down in spending, grants, allocated funds.

Find those individual departments HERE .

Takeaways from This Initial Release

• Construction spending means more materials purchased- supporting lumber, metal, and raw materials.
• This increase in spending budget, suggests that we can expect to see more jobs for our community members. More people working in our region from away will result in accommodation and food spending (both, restaurants & grocery).
• With greater healthcare available, and improved schools, we will see quality of life increase, which will also help with in migration increasing our population. This will also help with doctor recruitment.
• Improved highways (especially after last winter) will also help with tourism. We’ve all heard of tourists complaining of bad roads. Better roads make our Island and Province more attractive to tourists wanting to explore our region.

We can expect to see more individual spending plans in other departments which will be released on Tuesday, March 29^th. The province has already released some programs for tourism COVID release, primarily aimed at marketing, to help drive tourists to our area this summer.

Want to understand a little more about how the budget works? Check HERE.

Bottom Line: Tomorrow will showcase what we can expect from the Nova Scotia budget for the tourism industry.