Blaine Higgs says Tories may back Liberal capital budget

The Progressive Conservatives may support Finance Minister Roger Melanson’s $597.1-million capital budget if the Liberals can show how the infrastructure projects were selected, according to the Opposition’s finance critic.

Melanson laid out the Gallant government’s first capital budget on Wednesday, which is expected to create about 1,200 jobs.

The finance minister said all of the projects that will be funded were approved through a data-driven system called, asset management.

Quispamsis Tory MLA Blaine Higgs, the former finance minister, said the opposition may support the Liberal government’s capital budget if the funding process is open and transparent.

"And it is laid out in a way we all should be able to understand, in a way that we should agree on what areas of priority are required,” Higgs said.

The asset management system was previously used to develop a list of the top roads, bridges and highways that needed repairs.

The former Progressive Conservative government set aside part of the road budget as exempt from the asset management system, potentially subjecting it to political decisions.

Melanson told the legislature on Wednesday that the asset management program was being used for all projects.

"Projects that focus on government assets must also comply with asset management methodologies and principles,” he said.

The Liberal government’s commitment to the asset management plan will become clear in the coming days.

The Liberals will lay out exactly which projects will be on their spending list in the coming year.

The Tory finance critic said MLAs in all political parties have a challenge in overcoming old-style politics, where politicians dole out unaffordable promises and citizens grow to expect those election commitments.

When the process for picking capital projects is clear and is not based on politics, Higgs said it becomes easier to support those projects.

"It won’t be easy to argue that point when the criteria is sound. But there is a history to overcome in how investments are made, why they are made and how genuine they really are," Higgs said.

"And that history is the challenge that we all face is how good can we be in dealing with that history and how good can we be in revoking traditional trends because that is where we will be all moving this province forward in a better way."