Premier Darrell Dexter says his government is on track to balance Nova Scotia’s spring budget with the caveat that there are financial adjustments from Ottawa which could throw off the province’s fiscal plans by millions of dollars.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to release his second fiscal update this fall.

“Obviously, we’ll be very concerned about that,” Dexter told reporters following his weekly cabinet meeting, Tuesday. “We’ll be looking at it very carefully because it still remains the fact that the things the federal government can do affects very directly the books of the province.”

He said the federal government’s prior year adjustments, which come out just days before the province’s budgets are to be tabled, have offset provincial finances as much as $500-million in the past.

“You can work down a path to a balance, and get within a few days of your budget coming down, and all of a sudden have a huge wrench thrown into that,” said Dexter.

About 35 per cent of provincial revenue comes from federal sources.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie told the Canadian Press it appears Dexter is laying the ground to break another fiscal promise after raising the harmonized sales tax and running three consecutive deficits.

Baillie said it’s only October and the government’s “finger pointing and excuses” have already started.

When Dexter’s New Democrats were elected to govern in 2009, they promised to balance the books the following year without raising taxes.

Instead, the government raised the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points and shelved its balanced budget pledge until 2013.

Earlier this year, the government announced it would roll back the HST increase over two years, starting in 2014.