BILL NO. 38
(as introduced)
1st Session, 62nd General Assembly
Nova Scotia
63 Elizabeth II, 2014
Balanced Budget Act
Tim Houston
Pictou East
First Reading: March 31, 2014
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
Explanatory Notes
Clause 1 provides a short title to the Act.
Clause 2 limits the year-over-year percentage increase in government spending to an amount equal to the estimated percentage increase in the population of Nova Scotia and the rate of inflation as measured by the change in the Consumer Price Index.
Clause 3 prohibits the Minister of Finance from tabling a budget that is not balanced.
Clause 4 requires the Minister to request that the Government of Canada reduce the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax to 8%.
An Act to Require Balanced Budgets,
Limit Government Spending
and Reduce the Harmonized Sales Tax
to Thirteen Per Cent
1 This Act may be cited as the Balanced Budget Act.
2 Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2010, the Finance Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 29 the following Section:
- 29A (1) Notwithstanding Sections 27 to 29 and the Appropriations Act, no public money may be expended in any fiscal year in excess of the expenditures for the immediately preceding fiscal year by more than the estimated percentage increase in the population of the Province and the percentage increase in the previous year in the "all items" Consumer Price Index for the Province prepared by Statistics Canada.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply
(a) to an expenditure required in the fiscal year because of a natural or other disaster in the Province that could not have been anticipated and that affects the Province or a region of the Province in a manner that is of urgent public concern; or
(b) if the Province has experienced negative growth in its gross domestic product in the two immediately preceding quarters.
3 Chapter 2 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 54 the following Section:
4 The Minister shall request the Government of Canada to take the necessary action to reduce from 10% to 8% the tax payable in the Province under subsection 165(2) of Excise Tax Act (Canada).
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2014 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created March 31, 2014. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
