Minister of Finance, Randy Delorey addressed the Halifax Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Here’ the video of his entire speech you can read on for some of the key points from his speech.
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Pre-Budget Address 2016
Nova Scotians don’t believe me when I tell them we did better than any other province at reducing youth unemployment in 2015.
It’s true.
That means more of our daughters and sons are living and working here in Nova Scotia. They have jobs in engineering, in science, in technology.
In 2015 alone, Nova Scotia created 1,300 more full-time jobs for young men and women.
That’s progress.
While this fact surprises some Nova Scotians, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m not surprised because Nova Scotian businesses report the highest business confidence in Canada. Those numbers are from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
That means businesses around this province are hopeful. It means they plan to create jobs and provide more opportunities for youth.
We are creating more opportunities for youth, our businesses confidence is leading the country, and we just heard that our province’s population hit an all-time high.
The skeptics among us will say it’s because of a downturn out west. I look and see proactive leadership on population coming from our government.
We doubled the number of nominees under federal immigration program to 1,300 per year. More people are calling Nova Scotia home because of new immigration streams we established. It’s now easier for entrepreneurs and international students to immigrate to Nova Scotia.
More opportunities for youth, more business confidence, and more people means more room to grow. It means momentum is building.
Our government contributed to this momentum by making smart, strategic decisions. That’s what our government spent its first two years doing.
We knew we needed to change the way we do economic development. That’s why we took the politics out of economic development decisions.
We knew we needed to invest in our people. That’s why we invested in creating opportunities for youth. It’s why we made investments that improve public education, and we invested in skills and jobs training.
We made these decisions while being responsible financial managers and working to restore our province’s financial health.
Momentum is building, but we have more work to do. We cannot stop being responsible financial managers.
If we fail to protect our province’s financial health, we will no longer be able to make smart investments in our people.
If we fail to protect our province’s finances, we will not be able to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.
Smart, strategic decisions will grow our economy. They are also necessary to protect our province’s financial health.
Over our first two budgets, we’ve held the line on expenses while making investments in job creation, in public education, and in skills and jobs training.
Business confidence is up, our population is at an all-time high, and youth unemployment is dropping.
Momentum is building. And despite economic headwinds, we are seeing signs of hope.
Despite this momentum, we have more work to do.
We remain committed to protecting our province’s financial health.
More importantly, we’ve shown we are able to do so while making smart, strategic investments that move our province forward.
Our job is to build on the momentum we have and that is exactly what our next budget – on April 19 – will do.
We are here to stand with Nova Scotians. We are here to invest in you. Together we will move our province forward.
Randy Delorey
Minister of Finance and Treasury Board, NS