How can the Premier be so careless to table a budget he admits he doesn't understand?

CLAUDIA CHENDER : Speaker, this budget has been total chaos and real harm has been done. People have lost their jobs. People are worried about their future in this province. Families have been losing sleep for weeks, wondering if the programs their children with disabilities count on will continue. Clearly not enough thought went into the impact of these cruel cuts, and Nova Scotians no longer believe or trust that this government is working in their best interests.

How could the Premier be so careless in tabling a budget he now admits he didn't understand?

HON. TIM HOUSTON (The Premier) : The budget process is very complex. It goes on for months and months: incredible work by the civil service, incredible work by the elected officials, and $19 billion of spending. The finances of the province are challenging right now. I will accept responsibility. We went a little too fast on trying to address some of those challenges.

But when you see something is not working, you have the courage to stand up and correct course. We did that today for people with disabilities, seniors, people in African Nova Scotian and First Nations communities looking to further their education. We're trying to get to the right place. We care. We want what's best for Nova Scotians and I'm happy to be able to do that today.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Now the Premier praises the civil service. Yesterday he blamed them for the cuts. It's clear that this government tabled this budget without doing the work to understand how these cuts would impact Nova Scotians. For weeks we have watched the Premier and his ministers dodge questions, blame staff for the cuts, and tell media they were surprised to learn what was in their own budget.

Last night, the Minister of Finance and Treasury Board said he couldn't predict how this budget would change moving forward. How is it possible that the Minister of Finance and Treasury Board didn't know that this government was changing the budget last night.

THE PREMIER : In actual fact he did know, and I think that's what he said in the way he said it. This is about Nova Scotians. This is about investing in Nova Scotians, this is about trying to bring people together.

On a couple of the decisions in the budget, we got it wrong. We divided Nova Scotians. We don't want to divide Nova Scotians. We want to bring them together. There are incredible opportunities for this province. When we see we got something wrong, we're not perfect, I guess some people are; we're not.

If we see we got something wrong, we have to have the courage to acknowledge that. That's what we did today. We did that by working together. MLAs across this Chamber went out to their constituencies on the weekend, had meaningful, reasonable discussions, they brought information back, and we acted upon it.

CLAUDIA CHENDER : So, the Minister of Finance and Treasury Board knew that the budget was changing, but when he was asked, he said he couldn't predict. That is damning, Speaker. Nova Scotians are in the streets pushing back against this government's cruel cuts right now. We know that the cuts are wide and deep. There are cuts to long-term care staff. There are cuts to tourism operators and rural jobs, cuts to literacy programs, community organizations, cuts to food security.

Nova Scotians want to know how government decisions are impacting their families and their communities. They trusted this government, and that trust has been broken. Will the Premier pause this budget, do the real work to understand what it means, and come back with one he can actually defend?

THE PREMIER : The work that goes into this budget from people working in the civil service, people dedicating their lives to supporting Nova Scotians, is absolutely incredible. But we know that it's complex. We know that some of the stuff goes across departments. So, when it's time to constantly reassess, look and see what's possible, what we can do a little differently, how we can support, we'll do that.

The reality is the deficit went up today, because we're going to support more Nova Scotians. That's the right decision, but it doesn't change the fact that we have a very challenging fiscal situation we have to deal with over the coming months and years. We're committed to doing that. I'm committed to doing that.