Election promises would need price tags under new bill — but accuracy could be hitch

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives say they'll be flying blind when they try to comply with a proposed Liberal law that would force political parties to release the estimated cost of their election promises.

The Tories say the Liberal bill falls short of a similar PC law passed in 2014 and repealed by the Liberals after they took power.

The PC law required the government to release a fiscal outlook 90 days before election day to help parties come up with price tags for their campaign commitments.

But the Liberal law includes no such requirement, leaving it to parties to sort through the provincial budget to figure out their estimates.

Opposition discontent

"If important, critical baseline financial information is not provided in a timely manner … how is it possible to go forward with this?" PC MLA Stewart Fairgrieve asked during a legislative committee hearing Tuesday.

Liberal cabinet minister Lisa Harris told Fairgrieve that parties can rely on the 2018-19 provincial budget, being released later this month, and the 2017-18 third-quarter fiscal update due later this year.

The legislative library will also get a $140,000 increase to its budget to hire researchers to help political parties come up with cost estimates for their promises.

"They're going to have the resources made available to them to do the costing that they'll need to do," Harris said.

"We're committed to ensuring that New Brunswickers can make informed decisions at the voting booth. … This will increase transparency and improve accountability."

High penalty

The penalties for not complying with the costing requirement are potentially severe: a party that never files a declaration could lose its right to advertise during the campaign period and lose its annual per-vote subsidy from taxpayers.

The committee debate over the bill took place against the backdrop of the countdown to the next election. The vote is scheduled for Sept. 24.

The PC law, passed in the spring of 2014, imposed similar requirements on political parties for that year's election.

That June, then finance minister Blaine Higgs released a three-year "rule-of-thumb" fiscal outlook running to 2017-18.

It included guidelines to help calculate the cost of election promises, from the cost of one kilometre of road construction to the construction of a high school to a one-student decrease in the teacher-student classroom ratio.

"This is a far cry from what the minister's been talking about this afternoon," Fairgrieve said Tuesday.

Harris responded that more detailed fiscal information isn't needed because the Liberals have been hitting or exceeding their budget-deficit projections since taking office.