After weeks of saying it couldn't afford 3T technology, the New Brunswick government is opening the door to top-of-the-line MRI machines.

Health Minister Madeleine Dube announced in the legislature this morning that the government intends to create what she called an MRI management model and acquire the 3T machines.

A committee will help the government decide where the machines will be installed and when they will be used.

"We want to make sure that it's affordable, we want to make sure that it's sustainable and it's used properly as well," says Dube. "So we need to look at it as the whole health care system and how those machines will work."

The province is in the process of putting five new 1.5T machines into use, at the cost of about $2-million each.

The high-end 3T machines cost about $1-million more than the 1.5T machines, but they provide greater clarity and improved diagnostics.

The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation had offered to pay the $1-million difference to get a 3T machine but the government originally turned it down.

Foundation spokesperson Tim Cameron says he is pleased the government has had a change of heart.

"I wouldn't like to see them have all these MRI machines, and have overuse, and have everybody from all over the province sending a guy with a sore shoulder to Saint John for a 3T MRI, when it's intended for neurosurgery use," says Cameron. "It really makes sense what they're proposing."

However, the Opposition Liberals say today's announcement isn't good news, but nothing more than another delay.

"What they're going to do is stall and they put a committee in place that's going to report back in October and God knows what's going to happen after then," says Liberal MLA Bill Fraser. "We're into an election year, the year after that, so who knows if they're ever going to come."

The committee will be in place by May 1 and will report to the government by the end of October.

Dube did not say when the province will be purchasing the new 3T machines.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell