Premier Gallant says backing down over nursing home fees a valuable lesson

Premier Brian Gallant says he doesn't believe his reversal on nursing home fees in 2015 will lead to his Liberal government backing down on other tough policies in 2016.

In fact, Gallant says, the political storm he faced has taught him to re-think how he approaches such potentially contentious changes.

"We're going to ensure we learn from that mistake," Gallant said of his attempt to lower the subsidies for nursing home costs in 2015.

We didn't communicate well.- Premier Brian Gallant

"I think at the end of the day that's actually going to be helpful to us as we go through the Strategic Program Review."

In March, the Liberals announced in their budget that seniors who could afford it would have to pay more for their nursing home care.

The government planned to raise a $113-per-day cap on what they paid to $175, and to examine seniors' bank accounts to determine whether they could afford to go without subsidies.

But that led to a well-organized lobbying effort by seniors' organizations.

Cecile Cassista, the executive director of the Coalition of Seniors and Nursing Home Residents Rights, organized 43 public meetings around the province in the wake of the budget.

At one angry public meeting in June, Social Development Minister Cathy Rogers said it would be "a lazy way to find a solution" if she took one speaker's advice to cancel the change and raise the Harmonized Sales Tax to fight the deficit instead.

But the Liberals did cancel the change, and now they are contemplating an HST increase as one of several options for lowering the deficit.

Rogers said then the policy had been a good idea, but it was poorly communicated and caused "a significant amount of concern" for seniors, which was not consistent with the government's goal of helping them and their families.

Need for transparency

Gallant said in his year-end interview, recorded Dec. 18, that the episode taught him the importance of being more transparent before new policies are announced.

"We didn't communicate well, and we didn't engage people early enough," he said.

That's why he said he "keeps repeating" that he wants New Brunswickers to look at the $1 billion in options in his government's "Change" report, a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.

Those options include raising the Harmonized Sales Tax, imposing highway tolls, closing some small hospitals, and cutting teacher positions to match declining school enrolment.

"We need to hear from New Brunswickers early in the process," he said.

"We're hopeful with all this pro-active work, this level of transparency, and us doing the best we can to communicate what we're doing and how we're going about it, we'll be able to come to the best choices."

But Gallant acknowledged that it's a challenge getting busy New Brunswickers to tune in to the debate over the options and express themselves.

Tough decisions coming in budget

The Liberals have said that the coming year's budget will contain all the tough decisions it will make to reduce and eventually eliminate the deficit, which is forecast at $453 million this year.

And the premier said he doesn't think New Brunswickers will take the reversal on seniors as a sign it's easy to make the Liberals cave on other budget measures.

"I think New Brunswickers know we're serious about tackling our financial challenges," he said. "We're not doing this because we think it's fun."

In fact, he says he is willing to lose the next election if that is the political price he pays for tackling the deficit.

He says he knows he won't be premier forever.

"If I can show New Brunswickers that I did the best that I possibly could to invest in their priorities and make New Brunswick a better place, and if they decide to keep me as their premier, that's fantastic," he said.

"And if they decide that they want to go another way, then I'll understand and I'll be able to rest at night because I'll know I did the best I possibly could."