Diana Whalen warns of worsening demographics in pre-budget speech

Nova Scotia Finance Minister Diana Whalen warned that Nova Scotia demographics are worsening and that current services and programs were built for a time that no longer exists, in a pre-budget speech on Wednesday.

She made the comments during a lunchtime speech at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, remarking, "what do you do when you run out of taxpayers?"

Whalen nixed the idea of applying the provincial portion of HST to books, one of the recommendations of a recent tax review carried out by Laurel Broten, who said Nova Scotia should eliminate tax exemptions.

Volunteer fire fighters and ground searchers will keep their tax break.

But there is some fresh spending, with the minister also announcing the province has approved the purchase of the former Canadian Coast Guard base in Dartmouth from the federal government for $6.5 million. The site will be used to create an ocean technology centre.

And she outlined a handful of fresh initiatives, including the creation of a new Crown corporation to operate the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency and the potential privatization of joint stocks, motor vehicle and land registries.

"Government is exploring the possibility of public sector partnership [for the joint stocks], but unlike with the privatization of the tourism agency, it is not a done deal. No decision on an alternate service delivery have been made," a government spokesperson said after the speech. 

The spring budget will be delivered April 9.