New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs. (Photo: Submitted/Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick)
Some verbal sparring during Question Period on Tuesday afternoon between Liberal Roger Melanson and Premier Blaine Higgs over transfer payments from Ottawa.
Melanson says the transfer payments from Ottawa to the Higgs government will increase by $219 million in the next fiscal year.
He asked the premier if the money will be used to help New Brunswickers or to please people on Bay Street and Wall Street.
“The premier needs to come clean and tell us. ‘Are these dollars that are coming from Ottawa going to be used as it’s supposed to be used?’ To help New Brunswickers to have equal footing in the quality services they get in New Brunswick comparable to all other provinces,” Melanson said.
Premier Higgs pointed out the health transfer from Ottawa is $25 million out of a 3-billion dollar budget.
“$25 million. So Mr. Speaker, not exactly a windfall. So we’re looking at major expenses in our health category but, we have to find where we get the results,” Higgs said.
Higgs says the government takes a different view because they don’t believe that taxpayer dollars are a sustainable way to fund the future.
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