Small Businesses Need More Help: PANB Leader

The People’s Alliance leader says New Brunswick has not done enough to help small businesses through the pandemic.

Kris Austin made the comments Wednesday during a political leadership series hosted by members of the province’s business community.

“We want to see a little more help from government directed to some of the small businesses, especially things like the hospitality sector, which has taken a huge hit,” he said.

Austin said while he does not agree with government handouts in general, now is the time for the government to pull out all of the stops to help struggling businesses.

“Whether that’s a reduction or elimination of some of the taxes to help offset some of that or whether that’s help maybe with rent, and I know there’s some programs out there in the past on that,” he said.

The People’s Alliance leader was also asked how Opportunities New Brunswick fits into his vision of economic development fro the province.

The party would like to see the Crown corporation focus more on small businesses instead of just larger corporations, he said.

“It’s not just about necessarily catching the biggest fish in the pond. It’s more about making sure that all the smaller fish have a chance, too,” said Austin.

Austin said he has had several meetings with ONB and they have made “significant changes” in terms of being accountable for the money that is given out, which is what the party has asked for.

Homelessness

The leader of the People’s Alliance was also asked what his party would do to help address the challenge of homelessness in New Brunswick.

Austin said there is no easy and quick fix to the problem, but eliminating the so-called “double tax” on apartment buildings might help.

The Progressive Conservatives had planned to slash the tax starting this year but it was put on hold because of the financial impacts of COVID-19.

“If you can lower and eliminate the double tax, you’re going to see more investment from developers in New Brunswick. When you have more developers, that means you have more properties. Like any market, when you have more of an ability, prices tend to go down,” said Austin.

Austin says his party would even consider using legislation to freeze rental rates to ensure some of that tax reduction trickles down to tenants.

Balancing The Budget

Members of the business community also asked Austin about what is approach would be to restoring fiscal balance in the province.

The Progressive Conservative government had budgeted a surplus of $92.4 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year. But in a fiscal update in May, the province said it is now projecting a deficit of $299.2 million.

Austin said the government should not be running a deficit in normal times, but these are clearly not normal times.

“It’s times like this where I think the worry about balancing budgets, for at least the short term, does need to be put aside,” he said.

“If all of our goal is now to balance the books, first off, there’s no way you’re going to do it, it’s a false promise. Secondly, if you did do it, look out, because the cuts would be major.”

During the first leaders’ debate last week, Austin said while a balanced budget is important to the People’s Alliance, it is a “pie in the sky” idea during the pandemic.