"We're still obviously going to be looking in restraints to compensation, compensation is over $7 billion dollars in our budget, so it's significant," she said. Down $53 millionFinance Minister said the contingency fund was enough to offset the unrealized savings from the public sector wage rollbacks. The decline in tax revenue comes after the province raised the provincial sales tax to six per cent and applied it to other services previously exempt, such as restaurant meals and construction services. The deficit has gone down to $679 million from the $685 million projected at budget time. However, increased revenues from other revenue streams were enough to soften the blow, such as a $20 million increase in revenue from the fuel tax.

Source: CBC News November 29, 2017 16:37 UTC