Holt Liberals reiterate promises in throne speech, with one wrinkle

The Holt government is tweaking one of its key election promises on affordability as it kicks off the first session of the new legislature.

The Liberals will not eliminate the provincial sales tax on electricity bills, as it committed to do during the campaign.

It will instead pay for an equivalent rebate to ratepayers on monthly bills from N.B. Power and three local municipal power utilities.

"We're looking for the fastest way to get New Brunswickers relief, and that was the fastest path," Premier Susan Holt told reporters.

The speech contains no explanation of why the government is opting for a rebate, and the savings for ratepayers would be the same.

Eliminating the sales tax on power bills was a signature promise of the Liberals that Holt made on the very first day of the election campaign.

"We're going to apply this 10-per-cent tax cut to bills you are already paying today so that you can save money immediately," she said on Sept. 19.

WATCH | 'We want New Brunswickers to have relief as quickly as possible,' says premier:

Liberals tweak campaign promise on reducing taxes on electricity

8 days ago

Duration 0:44

Premier Susan Holt says a rebate, rather than the elimination of the provincial sales tax, will help people save money sooner on their power bills.

But she later clarified the savings wouldn't be immediate because removing the tax would require legislation, as well as 120 days' notice to the federal government — pushing the earliest possible implementation date to April 1, 2025.

"The other process was going to take us well into the spring, beyond some of the most expensive times of year for people's power bills," the premier said Tuesday.

Holt said during the campaign the promise would save the average household $192 per year and would cost the province $90 million annually in lost revenue starting in 2025-26.

She acknowledged that shifting to rebates that will start in the current 2024-25 fiscal year will have an impact on this year's budget but she wouldn't say what it will be.

Other affordability promises remain intact, according to the speech drafted by the government and delivered in the legislature by Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy. 

"New Brunswickers are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living as the price for things like gas, power and rent continue to go up," Murphy said.

"Your government is committed to making your life more affordable through targeted measures that will make a meaningful difference in your day-to-day life." 

The province will repeal the so-called "carbon adjustor" from the province's gasoline price regulation law. 

The Higgs government added the adjustor clause to allow gasoline producers and distributors to pass on the cost of federal clean fuel regulations to customers. The surcharge fluctuates and is 4.5 cents per litre this week.

The speech also re-commits to a legislated rent cap that will limit increases to three per cent a year.

Holt said when she was sworn in on Nov. 2 that the cap would take effect Feb. 1.

The speech confirms that all registered nurses, nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses will get retention bonuses of $10,000 this year and $5,000 next year.

The Liberals said during the election campaign that this year's bonuses would cost $74.3 million, though Finance Minister René Legacy hedged on that figure last week when he released a fiscal update projecting a $92.1-million deficit this year. 

The speech repeats Holt's campaign promise to deliver balanced budgets in "every year of its mandate."

Legacy argued last week that the current 2024-25 fiscal year, that began April 1, is not covered by that promise.

Holt repeated that argument Tuesday.

"This fiscal year, seven months of the year was the previous [Progressive Conservative] government, and five months of the year was ours," she said.

"We're going to strive to get as close to balance as possible, but clearly a majority of this year was out of our hands. … The commitment applies to the four years going forward where we will have actual authority over the projections and the revenues and expenses." 

Opposition Progressive Conservative leader Glen Savoie said Holt was using a common political manoeuvre by starting the power bill rebates in a year covered by the last PC budget.

"If they can end-load a lot of their promises onto that, it will make it look like the books from the previous government were in worse condition than they they actually were," Savoie said.

"That's old-school way things have always been done, so I'm not seeing any surprises there."

The speech also reiterates a range of other Liberal campaign promises including:

• Supporting the opening of 10 community care clinics in 2025, the first group of 30 that Holt has promised to open before 2028.

• Overhauling how doctors and other primary care providers are paid by Medicare to make it easier for them to work in community care clinics.

• Implementing universal free-breakfast and pay-what-you-can lunch programs in all New Brunswick schools.

• Working with municipalities to provide housing plus wraparound services to address chronic homelessness.

• Increasing the number of residency seats for psychiatrists and clinic psychologists and developing a training and retention plan, so that more professionals are available to address a growing need for mental health services, including within schools.

• Working with Ottawa to take the provincial sales tax off the construction of new rental housing as a way of spurring the creation of more housing.

• Ensuring that large industrial emitters "bear the brunt" of carbon pricing.

• Improving relationships with First Nations, including new tax-sharing agreements to replace the deals terminated by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

• Adopting a range of measures to encourage better transparency, such as changes to the province's right to information legislation, a strengthened registry of lobbyists, better protection for whistleblowers and a ban on out-of-province donations to political parties.