Provincial budget postponed a week by ice storm recovery efforts

The New Brunswick governmenthas delayed delivering its 2017-18 budget until Feb. 7 because ofongoing ice storm recovery efforts, Premier Brian Gallant announced Monday.

The budget was expected to be delivered in Fredericton on Tuesday, when the legislature is scheduled to resumesitting.

But more than 19,000 homes and businesses across the provinceremainwithout power following last Tuesday's storm, two people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning and 33 others are believed to be suffering the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, said Gallant.

"The most important thing for us is the safety of the people who have been impacted," he said during a news conference held at theLamque Town Hall to provide an update on the emergency response to the storm.

• Brian Gallant updates storm cleanup as 19,000 remain without power in N.B.

About 200 members of the Canadian Armed Forces have been sent tothe Acadian Peninsula to help with the fallout. The bulk of the outages are in northeastern New Brunswick.

NB Powerhas 380 crews working around the clock to restore power, said Gallant.

During the peak of the outages, 133,000 NB Power customers had no electricity.

The legislature will meet briefly at1 p.m.Tuesday as originally scheduled. After the regular prayer to start the daily sitting, there'll be a motion to adjourn untilnext Tuesdayfor the budget.

MLAs voted last December to resume sittingJan. 31, and that can only be changed by another motion of the house.

As for the budget, the Gallant government still expects to post a deficit of $231 million this year, according to third-quarter results released by Finance Minister Cathy Rogers last Friday.

It's expected to take four more budgets to eliminate the rest of the deficit two years longer than Gallant's Liberals proposed in the 2014 election.