A New Brunswick judge says the provincial government is "dragging its feet" in dealing with a $300-million shortfall in the pension plan for nurses and other hospital workers.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice William Grant made the comment Wednesday after hearing evidence from the committee that oversees the pension plan for about 10,000 health-care workers in the province.

The pension plan committee is in court seeking advice on how it can erase the $1-billion plan's massive deficit.

The committee said it told the provincial government three years ago, before global markets crashed, that it had a serious under-funding problem.

Now the pension plan has a $300-million deficit and the committee is asking the court for direction about whether it can cut benefits, increase contributions or choose a combination of those two options.

Although he questioned the court's role in the matter, Grant noted there's no doubt the pension plan faces a serious problem. He argued, however, that it could be resolved by the provincial government, the New Brunswick Nurses Union and the New Brunswick Union of Public and Private Employees "sitting down and doing something about it."

Grant said "it appears one party is dragging its feet" by not coming to the table, a reference to the provincial government.

The court heard the pension committee had proposed a solution that would have added a funding policy to the plan. Under the policy, both sides would put in whatever funding was necessary to stabilize the plan.

Both unions support the idea, which would mean increased contributions of about $48 every two weeks for members earning $60,000 a year.

The provincial government's position on coughing up its estimated $7 million share is unknown.

In a letter dated June 2009, the assistant deputy minister of the Office of Human Resources said the funding policy would be presented to the provincial government's board of management, which is a committee of the cabinet, for its consideration.

The committee told Grant it hasn't heard back.

It's unclear when Grant will render his decision.