FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick government will spend $500,000 this year on a temporary agency that's mandated to find ways to cut costs in the Health Department.

Health Minister Madeleine Dube says former health authority executives Rino Volpe and John McGarry will be in charge of the work over the next two years.

Dube says her department demands about 40 per cent of the provincial budget and that's expected to rise.

She says the Office of Health System Renewal can look for efficiencies and health-care innovations, while her department can concentrate on the delivery of services.

But Opposition Liberal Leader Victor Boudreau says the government is just creating another level of bureaucracy.

He says with the increase in health-care spending being held to 1.6 per cent this year, the money for the new office would be better spent on the actual delivery of services.