Premier Blaine Higgs speaking after a luncheon hosted by the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce. (Dave Heintzman/Acadia News)
Premier Blaine Higgs guaranteed his government would balance the budget for New Brunswick at a speech to the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton this past week.
He adds the overall tax burden is too high, and is suffocating the economy.
“The first thing is to stop adding to our overall net debt, and associated interest costs, which are greater today than what we spend in building and maintaining schools, hospitals, courts and roads,” says Higgs. “It’s actually the fourth biggest line item in our budget, at over $700 million a year.”
Higgs also told the business community he would help them reduce barriers to business where it made sense to do so.
“We have 50,000 strong employees that wanna have a better New Brunswick, and the only barrier to them not having a better New Brunswick is the political abuse that they witness every day,” says Higgs. “Why should they bother, if we’re not gonna make better decisions based on facts, not based on the next vote.”
Higgs says the goal is to reduce debt, and taxes, and he asked the public to send him any ideas they had for improving the province.
