Liberal budget contains policy flip flops
Finance Minister Roger Melanson, Premier Brian Gallant both on record as opposing some of the cuts, taxes
The Gallant government's first budget contains several controversial elements, including some that Finance Minister Roger Melanson and Premier Brian Gallant are both on record as opposing as recently as last year.
Melanson, who announced the latest teacher cuts, had in February 2014, while the finance critic for the opposition, characterized reductions in teachers carried out under the former Alward government as being irresponsible, in light of how poorly New Brunswick students have been performing in international proficiency tests.
"Given recent testing results from PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment], we cannot afford to take any more educators out of our school system," Melanson had said during debate over the Alward government's final budget.
Earlier in that session, Gallant had also questioned teacher cuts, suggesting the Progressive Conservatives didn't understand the relationship between educators and the economy.
"The government has been speaking about innovations, but it turns around and cuts teachers," Gallant had said in his first major speech in the legislature in November of 2013.
In that address, Gallant also was critical of the Alward government for hiking gas taxes and increasing fees to seniors as ways to fix the deficit.
If we were to poll all New Brunswickers and ask who should contribute more, I would like to see how many would say, 'I think it is the seniors.- Brian Gallant, then-opposition leader
"Whether it be the gas tax, the prescription fee for seniors … every single thing the government could raise, it did," Gallant had said.
"Raising these indirect taxes and fees is a very regressive way of getting new revenue from New Brunswickers. It hurts our seniors, our farmers, our fishermen, those living in poverty, and those on fixed incomes. If we were to poll all New Brunswickers and ask who should contribute more, I would like to see how many would say, 'I think it is the seniors.'"
On Tuesday, the Gallant government said 18,000 seniors who use the government's Blue Cross prescription drug program will be asked to pay more to retire a $2 million annual deficit in the service, while motorists were hit with a $28 million increase in gas and diesel taxes.
The government also said a number of seniors in nursing homes with the financial means, will be asked to pay more of the cost of their own care, although how many seniors that affects and how much money the government is looking for is unclear.
Broken election pledge
Another significant policy shift in Tuesday's budget was the decision not to protect high earners in New Brunswick from paying more income tax than residents of Quebec, breaking a personal promise made by Gallant during last summer's election campaign.
"We made it very clear the tax brackets we would create and we also made it very clear we would not allow anyone to be paying more than the province of Quebec," Gallant told CBC News in September.
On Tuesday, the top combined federal/provincial tax rate in New Brunswick for those making over $250,000 was set at 54.75 per cent — the highest in North America.
Under that rate, New Brunswick residents begin to pay higher total income taxes than Quebec residents once their income approaches $400,000, and although Gallant promised some kind of mechanism to stop that from happening, it was not included in Tuesday's budget.
"It's a broken promise," said Kevin Lacey, Atlantic director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Roger Melanson would not respond directly to questions about whether he and the premier had switched their positions on issues, such as teacher cuts, and would say only that the campaign promise made to high-income earners was broken for unspecified reasons.
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