With only two weeks left before election night, Brian Gallant has bestoyed upon us the Liberal Platform. It’s not as lengthy as the other three platforms released by the PANB, Green, and NDP parties respectively. It cut a lot of the waste out and went straight for the numbers (and a few jabs at the PCs).
The Liberals propose saving $90 million in their first year by doing three things. First they would axe the property tax giveaway which benefits malls, power plants, large companies, and rental properties. Before the Alward government put this tax cut into effect (he announced it in 2012), his own finance minister, Blaine Higgs, said that they could not afford it. Secondly, the Liberals would cut the duplication of communications and information (they did not take the liberty of explaining what this is but might we assume it’s the English and French documentation of everything the government publishes?). Lastly, they propose a tax hike on New Brunswick’s wealthiest 1%.
For the second year in power, Gallant would institute the Chretien formula used in the 1990s which saw the federal government balance the books and lead to consecutive surpluses. For those not in the know, the Chretien formula was an independent panel which sat down with the finance department and went over the books over and over until they found and cut all waste, cut unnecessary programs, and restricted the flow of cash into the necessary. It’s tightening the belt during the bad times, but preparing for the good. It worked for the country, it would likely work for the province if we stick to it. Gallant wants to use this method to save $250 million a year starting in year two of a Gallant Government.
Also following in Chretien’s footsteps, Gallant would put away $150 million each year as a contingency fund for unforeseen problems which would negatively impact the yearly debt. Most responsible governments already have this. New Brunswick used to have it but it was cut by Premier Alward.
Education is a crucial component to the platform. Like Dominic Cardy of the NDP, the Liberals are stressing the importance of literacy and skills training. The Liberals would bring back the adult literacy program which Alward cut, give a training tax credit to small buisnesses which give employees training incentives, and institute a nine month accelerated information communications technologies (ICT) program to fill certain emplyment gaps in NB.
Like the other platforms, there is some fluffy stuff that won’t actually come to fruition. Quebec has been demanding more control over immigration for decades. Gallant promises to get together with the other Atlantic provinces and to work with the federal government on getting more control over immigration for Atlantic Canada. The federal government has constitutional jurisdiction over immigration and has historically not given it up. So this sounds like an empty promise that sounds good on paper. Another component of this is better recognition of professional credentials from other parts of the country (and the world) to get foreign workers into NB to fill employment requirements that New Brunswickers are currently failing to fill.
For more details please see the platform for yourself. The $900 million on infrastructure is still in there…
http://nbliberal.ca/web/2014LiberalPlatform/nbla_eng_flipbook/nbla_eng_flipbook/index.html#p=4
politiconb 