{"id":62603,"date":"2026-02-23T18:19:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=62603"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:19:49","slug":"budget-2026-27-investments-in-northern-nova-scotia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=62603","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2026-27: Investments in Northern Nova Scotia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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CUMBERLAND COUNTY:<\/strong> In this year\u2019s budget, Nova Scotia is forging a path toward powering its future, building stronger, healthier communities and ensuring the Province\u2019s fiscal sustainability.

Finance and Treasury Board Minister John Lohr tabled Budget 2026-27: Defending Nova Scotia on February 23.

\u201cThis year\u2019s budget is about continuing to invest in the strategic priorities that will drive the province forward and build our economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the same time, we are planning for the long term to reduce expenses and keep our province on strong fiscal footing,\u201d said Minister Lohr.

Budget 2026-27 continues to make life more affordable, with $681.2 million to continue tax saving measures that will save the average family more than $1,400 this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the projects that will benefit Northern Nova Scotia include:
– $233.5 million to continue rolling out One Patient One Record across the province, creating one digital health record for every patient no matter where they are (operating and capital)
– $873.8 million to build 5,700 new and replacement long-term care spaces by 2032, including the Roger Bacon Long-Term Care Centre in Amherst, which will open this year (capital)
– $144.5 million for construction and renewal of hospitals and medical facilities, including the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Amherst (capital)
– $24.7 million for the construction of modular units to expand dialysis services, including at the All Saints<\/a> Springhill Hospital (capital)
– $4.7 million toward the first phase of the Menopause Centre of Excellence to help women get the specialized care they need (operating and capital)
– $3.1 million to hire and train staff for the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre\u2019s redeveloped emergency department so they can hit the ground running when it opens in June 2027
– $47.1 million to pay more to hard-working family doctors, including those who take shifts in long-term care facilities, hospitals and emergency departments in Nova Scotia\u2019s rural community hospitals
– $8 million more for the Universal Mental Health and Addictions Care Insured Services program to expand services across the province
– $500,000 for improvements to the Mental Health and Addictions Provincial Crisis Line technology
– $110.3 million to build and renovate schools\u00a0in the 2026-27 school year, including in Trenton (capital)
– $7 million to open five Integrated Youth Services sites across the province, including in New Glasgow, by 2027-28
– $30.8 million for post-secondary student housing for Nova Scotia Community College, including at the Cumberland campus in Springhill
– $46.4 million to build new public housing units, including in Springhill, and\u00a0to maintain\u00a0existing public housing units (operating and capital)
– $6.8 million to contract four dedicated fixed-wing water bombers for Nova Scotia for wildfire operations
– $1.8 million to increase the Gas Tax Access Road Program, which helps private woodlot owners build and upgrade access roads for harvesting
– $8 million to support forestry contractors and private woodlot owners to move low-grade wood to market and lower wildfire risk
– $465 million for highway and road improvement and safety provincewide, including the Trunk 4 active transportation corridor conversion in Antigonish County (capital).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Budget 2026-27 also introduces a four-year fiscal sustainability plan to contain expense growth. This includes a five per cent civil service reduction and a three per cent reduction in the broader public service, which includes Crown corporations, regional centres for education and other entities.

\u201cWe value our hard-working public servants, but government needs to become more focused and efficient,\u201d said Minister Lohr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will protect core front-line services that Nova Scotians rely on, and work to right-size government through attrition wherever possible.\u201d

Quick Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– with revenues of $17.3 billion and expenses of $18.9 billion, Budget 2026-27 estimates a deficit of $1.19 billion (after consolidation and adjustments) before contingency<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– additional appropriations related to the 2025-26 budget forecast total $47.4 million since the December forecast update <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CUMBERLAND COUNTY: In this year\u2019s budget, Nova Scotia is forging a path toward powering its future, building stronger, healthier communities and ensuring the Province\u2019s fiscal sustainability. Finance and Treasury Board Minister John Lohr tabled Budget 2026-27: Defending Nova Scotia on February 23. \u201cThis year\u2019s budget is about continuing to invest in the strategic priorities that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[1727,1753,10184,10414,1315,2602,48],"class_list":["post-62603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amherst","tag-antigonish","tag-budget-2026","tag-budget-2026-27","tag-cumberland-county","tag-minister-john-lohr","tag-n-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}