Finance Minister Blaine Higgs has spoken often about the needs to reinvent the provincial government during his battle to reduce the deficit.

The size of the civil service and its cost has come under scrutiny during the fight to control the deficit.

The finance minister has committed to reducing the number of deputy ministers and lowering the size of the civil service in earlier budgets.

He has also boasted about reducing the size of the provincial government in his recent pre-budget consultation meetings.

The New Brunswick government releases a list of all salaries of employees earning more than $60,000 every year.

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts document, which was released in December, shows 1,664 employees in 43 departments, Crown corporations and agencies earned more than $100,000 in 2011-12.

Kevin Lacey, the Atlantic director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said his issue is not with specific salaries but the overall growth of government spending.

Finance Minister Blaine Higgs is being pressured to reduce the size and cost of the civil service. (CBC)

“We’ve seen this massive growth happen, but at the same time the population of the province hasn’t risen accordingly. So what we’re doing is adding more government to a population that is about the same size. That is unsustainable,” he said.

“What we’d like to see is for him to address this by reducing the overall numbers and the overall spent.”

Higgs has committed to reducing the overall size of the bureaucracy during his first two provincial budgets.

In his March budget, for instance, Higgs outlined how the provincial government expected 1,500 civil servants to retire each year for the next three years. He said one-third of those employees will not be rehired.

The finance minister said the bureaucracy cuts will save about $86 million.

Higgs told citizens at his pre-budget meetings that the civil service has been reduced each year since the Progressive Conservatives came to power in 2010.

While the finance minister was talking about reducing spending earlier in the fiscal year, the province’s deficit has continued to escalate.

In March, the projected deficit was $183 million and that has risen to $411 million. Higgs and Premier David Alward have recently talked about the possibility of holding a referendum to increase the harmonized sales tax or impose road tolls.

NB Power has most earning $100K

John Sinclair, the chief executive officer of the New Brunswick Investment Management Corp., has the highest salary range of any civil servant — $475,000 to $499,999. But NB Power still has the largest number of employees earning more than $100,000.

There are 739 people at the Crown corporation who earn more than $100,000, including Gaëtan Thomas, the utility’s president, who earns between $325,000 and $349,000.

Higgs said in his pre-budget presentation that NB Power has eliminated four vice-president positions and reduced executive benefits and pensions. There are now four vice-presidents at the utility.

There are also fewer workers at the utility. NB Power has cut 149 employees through staff reduction and severance initiatives, while another 150 positions have been cut through attrition.

These changes have saved $47 million since 2010. NB Power has identified another $20 million in savings that will be made in the next year.

By comparison, there are 441 people in the various health-related departments and agencies, who earn six-figure salaries. The majority of those employees work at the two regional health authorities.

There are 236 Horizon Health employees earning $100,000 or more, compared to 142 at the Vitalité Health Network.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health has 23 bureaucrats earning salaries in that range and another 13 people at Facilicorp.