The New Brunswick government is poised to spend more than $1 billion on infrastructure next year, the premier said Thursday.

Premier Shawn Graham said that his government will invest a "record $1.6 billion" in a capital spending plan to be tabled next Tuesday as part of the provincial budget.

Graham refused to say more about the infrastructure spending plan, other than that it's expected to create 9,000 jobs.

But Finance Minister Greg Byrne confirmed that the increased government spending will add to the provincial debt that now stands at $7.4 billion.

"There's no question that the debt will increase," he said Thursday. "We have certainly not shied away from that."

Byrne said the spending is necessary to stimulate the economy because of the recession.

In last year's budget, the Liberals unveiled a two-year capital budget of $1.2 billion, saying of that, $660 million would be spent in the first year.

Graham says next week's budget will boost that two-year amount to $1.6 billion, meaning new spending of close to $1 billion in 2010-11 alone.

Conservative finance critic Bruce Fitch questioned adding to the province's debt at the same time the Liberal government is selling NB Power to Hydro-Québec in order to pay off what it calls the utility's "crippling" debt.

It's a contradiction to declare one debt an emergency, he said, while allowing another to keep growing.

"According to what they're saying, the credit card is at the max and they're hardly making the minimum payment, so certainly I'd like to see where this money is coming from," Fitch said.

The provincial debt in New Brunswick increased by $438.6 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year, more than three times the amount projected in the Liberal government's budget.

The net debt is now $7.4 billion, according to audited financial statements released in September.

Hydro-Québec is to pay $4.8 billion for most of NB Power's assets, a sum that would wipe out the utility's debt under a proposed agreement expected to be finalized by the end of March.

The Conservatives are against the proposal and have demanded an election over the sale.

Byrne said the government has a plan to return to a balanced budget and start paying down its debt. But that likely won't happen by 2013, he said, the government's original target for getting back in the black.

Graham was elected in 2006 promising to balance the province's books, but instead has overseen three straight jumps in the province's debt — the last in the middle of the global economic recession — that has added a record $1.7 billion to what the province owes.