Opposition politicians are criticizing the provincial government's move to dip into its reserve fund to help balance the budget for the next two years.
An accounting dispute with the auditor general over how pension assets should appear on the books is adding 2.2 billion dollars to the deficit this fiscal year.
But Finance Minister Charles Sousa said in his fall economic update that he'll reduce the reserve for 2017-18 from 1.1 billion dollars to 700 million, and use another 400 million dollars
the next year to balance the books.
Progressive Conservative finance critic Vic Fedeli says a balance achieved through the use of reserve funds is ``artificial'' and not true balance.
The N-D-P finance critic calls it ``short-sighted'' and a sign of desperation.