NLIS 6
March 22, 2004
(Executive Council)
(Finance)

Budget 2004 set for March 30

Loyola Sullivan, Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, today announced government will bring down a budget before the end of the current fiscal year. Budget 2004 will be brought down in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, March 30.

Minister Sullivan said that during the week of March 8-13, Cabinet had lengthy budget meetings and was encountering very tough choices on how to meet budget targets. In anticipation of needing more time to complete the budget process, the Cabinet decided to delay the date of the budget into April.

"Cabinet was determined to move the process forward as quickly as possible, and the provincial budget has been the main focus for Cabinet for the last week. We have spent many hours meeting and deliberating over budget decisions. We have now completed that process, and therefore, we felt it was incumbent upon us to bring down a budget at the earliest possible date," said the minister.

Minister Sullivan explained that the provincial budget will come one week after the federal budget. "The federal budget is later than usual this year. With a March 30 budget date, government will have one week to incorporate into our budget any ramifications from the federal budget," he said.

"We were faced with many difficult decisions for Budget 2004, but the responsible decisions had to be made, and were made. This budget will present our plan for addressing our province�s serious fiscal situation; a situation this government inherited, but one we must, and we will fix," concluded Minister Sullivan.

Media contact: Diane Keough, Communications, (709) 729-6830

2004 03 23                                        1:15 p.m.


SearchHomeBack to GovernmentContact Us


All material copyright the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. No unauthorized copying or redeployment permitted. The Government assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of any material deployed on an unauthorized server.
Disclaimer/Copyright/Privacy Statement