The issue focused on the government's attempt to use some of the $1.2-billion in public money for a new water purification plant, at a time when more than one in three people in Canada are still without access to safe drinking water.

"I can't see any other way that you would have an increase of this size and kind of call it a big thing," said Sen. Don Plett, D-N.B. "It is not about phasing out those services.