Kris Austin is leader of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick. (Submitted)
People’s Alliance leader Kris Austin likes the contents of the Higgs budget but, thinks it could have gone farther in some areas.
He is pleased there are no tax increases and to see funding increases to various government departments.
“It’s one of those projects that I think kind of hits the sweet spot in a lot of areas. Now in terms of tax reductions, we would have been a little more aggressive with the double tax and the commercial property tax but overall, it certainly is a step in the right direction,”
Austin agrees with spending $1.5 million to ensure all New Brunswickers get a free flu shot and happy to see advanced care paramedics will be operating in their full scope of practice.
“Which only makes sense, it’s mind-boggling that they were never were able to operate in their full scope because they are licensed, trained and qualified to do it but, starting April 1st that is going to change. So that is something we found hard for too when it comes response times and emergency help when people need it,” Austin said.
It contains items we have been pushing govt for, but it doesn’t go far enough. We' d have gone further. #nbpoli https://t.co/VgYSMqnhxn
— Kris Austin (@KrisAustinPA) March 10, 2020
The PANB has talked about changing the tax class structure for municipalities as they do elsewhere but, that was not in the budget.
“But the government has eluded to re-evaluating the assessments on some of those industrial properties which is good. The question is what that means and how are they going to produce that. So, we’ll be keeping an eye out for that,” Austin said.
Austin said the People’s Alliance has always said this province needs industry, but it also needs fair and reasonable taxes.
He also said the members of the People’s Alliance will be supporting this budget.
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