STRAIT AREA - Nova Scotia's newest Finance Minister is projecting a budget surplus for the year ending 2021-22, and opposition MLAs have some ide"In as as to how he can spend it.

In a development reported by Roundtable host/producer Adam Cooke on the series' year-end episode, Finance Minister Allan MacMaster is now expecting $108.2 million in black ink by the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year on March 31. That represents a $393.2-million swing from last year's budget, tabled under the previous Liberal government, and a shift of $552.8 million from MacMaster's previous fiscal forecast in September, shortly after he accepted the Finance post from newly-elected Progressive Conservative (PC) Premier Tim Houston.

Speaking with MacMaster during the December 1 edition of Roundtable, Cape Breton MLAs Kendra Coombes and Fred Tilley each had ideas for MacMaster's first official budget. 

"Health care was a big election issue, as we're all aware, but in our first [legislature] session, we actually didn't see one piece of legislation around health care, and I'd really like to see the plan for that come forward in 2022." said Tilley, who won Northside-Westmount for the Liberals in August. 

"The second big issue for people around my riding is affordability. The government. in their platform, talked about a better paycheck for everyone, and I'm really going to be wanting to look forward to that, to see that it's actually getting to the people who need it."

Coombes, originally elected for the NDP in 2020 by-election and re-elected in the riding of Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier a year later, didn't hesitate in terms of her sefl-described "laundry list" for the Finance Minister in 2022.

"A $15 hourly minimum wage, heading towards a living wage - there you go, Allan," she said to MacMaster with a smile on her face. 

"We need more public, affordable, assessable housing - in my riding, it's the biggest thing we need... I want to see what this government is going to do to fix health care, and that includes 4.1 hours of hands-on care that is needed in our long-term care facilities, and more long-term-care beds are needed."

Other Roundtable panel discussions revisited during the 2021 year-end episode included:

1:40 - Affordable housing in the Strait Area, with Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette and Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton

5:50 - First-term councillors Melanie Sampson (Richmond County), Jason Aucoin (Port Hawkesbury), and Krista Luddington (Mulgrave) look back on their first year in office

11:39 - Men's mental health issues with West Arichat's Alex Forgeron and Port Hawkesbury's Byrson Sylliboy 

15:35 - Attracting and retaining newcomers to Cape Breton, featuring Cape Breton Welcome Committee chairs Norma Jean MacPhee (St. Peter's) and Allyson Clayton (Port Hawkesbury), Cape Breton Partnership communications director Jeremy Martell, and India native Gurmit Kaur, a career counsellor with Nova Scotia Works and the Cape Breton YMCA.