Original by Hansard Office Translation by Debates Translation Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Oral Questions March 15, 2018 [Original] Government Spending Mr. Higgs: The next six months promise to be a study in contrasts between the Premier and me. If the Premier’s words in the Legislature are any indication, he will continue to spend our tax dollars at record levels to buy votes. He will be inventing stories and fearmongering, to borrow one of his most commonly used words—fearmongering. The Premier will be asking New Brunswickers to believe him. My message for New Brunswickers is this: Do not believe him.

The Premier is merely employing old-time political strategy taken from a Liberal playbook: If you cannot run on your own record, fearmonger about somebody else, particularly your opponent. My question for the Premier today is this: Can the Premier tell the truth about his own record and run on his own record? Thank you. Hon. Mr. Gallant: The answer is an absolute yes. By working with New Brunswickers, by working with community leaders and business operators in this province, the economy of the province has grown every single year.

When you take the collective from 2015 and the estimates right up to 2018, you see that New Brunswick actually grew its economy at the sixth- fastest rate of all the provinces. Contrast that with the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister of Finance, cutting into health care and cutting into education and, as a result, retracting the New Brunswick economy. When he was the Minister of Finance, New Brunswick was 10th when it came to economic growth during his government’s mandate.

Luckily, we are working with New Brunswickers and investing in their priorities, and our multiyear Economic Growth Plan is getting results. (Interjections.) Mr. Speaker: Order. Mr. Higgs: The key point there was telling the truth about the record. The growth in the economy was to last place. That is where we are—last place. We have the longest wait times in health, or last place. We have numerous areas in which we are trending downward or headed directly into last place. We are 8th in education. There have been record investments but no return.

When the Premier threatens cuts, he is engaging in what is professionally referred to cognitive dissonance. It is as if the arsonist is telling the firefighters how to do their job.

Original by Hansard Office Translation by Debates Translation Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Oral Questions Let’s consider the cuts made by this Premier: 302 teachers and assistants, 15 schools closed, 6 Service New Brunswick offices closed, 4 rural courthouses closed, and the Gagetown ferry sold. The Premier cut food and cleaning budgets for nursing homes, and he has also cut the ratios. He cut the tuition tax credit for working families and the New Brunswick Tuition Rebate for graduating students. He cut arts funding.

The Premier spent the past four years making cuts, and now he will be spending the next six months trying to pay it all back through promises made for the future. Mr. Speaker: Time. [Translation] Hon. Mr. Gallant: I fully agree with the Leader of the Opposition on one thing: We have made record investments in education. We are investing in our 10-year education plans. We are investing in our postsecondary institutions. We are investing to make postsecondary education more affordable and accessible for people who need help the most.

We are making historic investments in early childhood. [Original] What I do take issue with in the Leader of the Opposition’s comments is the following. He wants to pretend that the numbers from Statistics Canada are not right. From 2015 to 2018, when you look at the estimates, we have grown the economy at the sixth-fastest rate of all the provinces. Contrast that with the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister of Finance. They were 10th because they retracted the economy.

If he has different numbers on the economic growth during the two mandates, I challenge him to go to the media and show them once and for all. Mr. Higgs: I said yesterday how vehemently the Premier defends last place in the country. It is quite shocking, really. Many New Brunswickers will not need to be reminded of how this Premier has made life more difficult for them. Those people who are filling out their income taxes these days are being reminded of $1 billion in new taxes with nothing to show for it. Many are being reminded that the Premier cut the Tuition Tax Credit, costing families thousands of dollars.

Seniors will not forget the asset grab. Property owners have been receiving their reminders of the Gallant government property tax scandal in the mail. New Brunswickers waiting for surgery are very aware of the Premier’s record of failure in health care. I contend that since being elected, this Premier has done a poor job in every category except collecting taxes. It now costs the government $1 billion more to run the government than it did four years ago, and there is nothing to show for it. How can the Premier defend such a dismal record? Thank you.

Original by Hansard Office Translation by Debates Translation Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Oral Questions [Translation] Hon. Mr. Gallant: Once again, I note that the only one who was in last place in terms of growing the economy during the mandate of his government is the Leader of the Opposition, who was then Minister of Finance. When he was Minister of Finance, he reduced investments in education and health. We have a different approach: We invest in the priorities of New Brunswickers.

We invest more in education and health, as well as in programs and initiatives that will grow the economy. [Original] I have to say that if the member opposite wants to talk about failure, I will tell you about a failure—it is the failure the former Minister of Finance had with his portfolio. He promised that he would balance the books in four years. He did not even come close to it. All he did was cut into education and health care and retract the economy. We have no lessons to learn from the Leader of the Opposition. We have to listen to the people of the province, and that is what we have done.

We have invested in their priorities of economic growth, education, and health care throughout our mandate. Carbon Tax Mr. Higgs: Invested to achieve last place. It is quite a record. There are very clear differences between the Premier and me for New Brunswickers to consider. The Premier believes in Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. I do not. I believe that we need a carbon plan for the future, not a carbon tax for the present. We are meeting and exceeding current emission targets. We were stating this back before Trudeau dictated the carbon tax to provinces. Even the Premier has started to admit that fact.

It entered his narrative only very recently though. We all agree on the importance of meeting our environmental targets today and in the future. The next target we need to meet will be set for 2050. Changes in technology between now and then could very, very well get us there. My question is this: Will the Premier admit that this is a carbon tax? Will he be opposed to this carbon tax? Is this just a stay that we have right now through the election period, and then this new $200 million of revenue will come upon the taxpayers of this province if he returns to government? Thank you. [Translation] Hon. Mr.

Gallant: Of course, we agree with the Trudeau government: We must all do more to combat climate change. That is precisely why we made a commitment and undertook over 100 actions to combat climate change here in New Brunswick. We do have a mechanism for carbon pricing. We will put it in place along with the rest of the country, but we will do so in a way that respects the economy, realities, and challenges in New Brunswick. We are proud of the

Original by Hansard Office Translation by Debates Translation Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Oral Questions mechanism that we have put in place, and we are convinced that it will continue to generate the outcomes we expect over the coming years. [Original] The Leader of the Opposition is right, though. There is a contrast between him and me. There is a contrast between our government and the opposition. (Interjections.) Mr. Speaker: Order. Hon. Mr. Gallant: We want to invest in the priorities of the people of our province—education, health care, and economic growth.

He wants to cut into every single one of those things. Mr. Higgs: We probably have the largest example ever of a government gone wild. It is taxing and spending at record amounts without results. I am talking about another pending tax because the government cannot stop spending. I was told here . . . Not long ago, the Minister of Environment—current, present, or future, I am not sure—said that this would be a revenue gain of about $200 million per year. I would like to ask the Premier whether that is correct. If that is correct, where is that $200 million coming from?

Is that coming from taxpayers’ pockets, should he get elected in 2018 and carry on with his government? Is that where another $200 million of tax dollars is coming from, right out of the pockets of hardworking businesses, individuals, communities, and people who are trying to survive? Where is it coming from? Thank you. [Translation] Hon. Mr. Rousselle: Obviously, I am not surprised. The Premier talks about the very hard years of negative economic growth under the Conservative mandate, under the Minister of Finance at the time, who is the current Leader of the Opposition.

I am not surprised about that negative growth, then, because the Leader of the Opposition obviously does not listen to or has not understood what we have been saying for the last few months with regard to our situation in terms of carbon pricing. We have been very clear: There will be no new tax for consumers. We will reprofile—I repeat, reprofile—the gasoline and motive fuel tax to set up a carbon fund. We have said that, each year, we will set aside 2.3¢ per litre of the gasoline tax, for example. The first year, that will amount to $37 million.

Furthermore, the amount will increase each year to some $180 million in the fifth year. So, we are in fact talking about $180 million, and that was announced three or four months ago.

Original by Hansard Office Translation by Debates Translation Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Oral Questions [Original] Mr. Higgs: There, we have clarified that the number is potentially in the $200-million range, but I would ask, in relation to the gas tax money, what that is being used for today. Is it taking away from the roads and the communities and the money that is designated for them? Is that where that is going, just to allow government to have more access to and to spend more dollars?

Is that money, which continues to increase, coming out of gas tax—and I am assuming the current gas tax formula—going to take away from our infrastructure and our roads, which are the very reasons it is there, in order to fund more largesse in spending from a government out of control? Hon. Mr. Rousselle: I understand quite well why the Leader of the Opposition does not understand how it is working. It is because during the last four years of our mandate, we not only attained the objectives we had for the deficit but we surpassed them and did better. He did exactly the opposite.

We are going to do the same thing with this tax. It is not a new tax. Consumers will not have more tax to pay. We are just reprofiling the money, and you can be sure that we will be managing the budget in this province in the next four years as we did in the last four years. You can be sure of that. [Translation] If the Leader of the Opposition has difficulty understanding, well, we can give him a course on how to manage an economy in order to achieve his objectives while investing strategically in the education and health secto