L-R: Green Megan Mitton, New Democrat Evelyne Godfrey, Libertarian Donna Allen, PC Bruce Phinney, Liberal John Higham

Sackville resident Bill Carroll challenged the five candidates running in Tantramar to identify what their parties would cut to pay for their campaign promises in the provincial election on October 21st.

Carroll’s question came near the mid-point of a two-hour all-candidates’ forum on Wednesday at Sackville’s Civic Centre.

“It’s election time,” he said, “the platforms are out there, the parties are promising two chickens in every pot, there’s going to be a car in every driveway, there’s going to be a reduction in HST, there’s going to be so many good things flowing,” Carroll said, referring specifically to the Progressive Conservative promise to cut provincial sales taxes by two percentage points over the next two years.

“In a balanced-budget world, where’s the money going to come from?” Carroll asked.

“So I ask the candidates, name a program or two that you’re going to cut funding from so that we can get all these grand financial benefits.”

Green answer

Green candidate Megan Mitton

“An example of something that we can cut is to cancel the power subsidies to pulp mills and use the savings to provide low-income individuals and families with monthly rebates on their power bills to offset electricity rate increases,” said Green Party candidate Megan Mitton.

“And rather than what the Liberal platform is suggesting, which is to cut it across the board, this is more targeted towards those who need it the most,” she added.

Mitton also mentioned eliminating subsidies to companies that put their profits in off-shore tax havens to avoid paying taxes in New Brunswick.

NOTE: According to documents filed with Elections NB, Green promises — outlined in the Green platform— would cost just over $3.2 billion over four years.

PC response

PC candidate Bruce Phinney

Progressive Conservative candidate Bruce Phinney suggested his party’s promise to cut the HST, which would reduce government revenues over the next four years by $1.5 billion, may be offset by an increase in population as well as shifting money around in government departments.

“The only promise that actually has been made is the HST [cut] from the Higgs government so far,” Phinney said.

NOTE: The PCs are also promising to make regulatory changes to expand the scope of practice of medical professionals such as nurse practitioners, registered nurses, paramedics and pharmacists allowing them to take on more duties as a way of shortening wait times for patients who need primary care. They calculate that this promise would cost just over $98 million over four years. In addition, the PCs promise to invest $45 million over four years on drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. According to documents filed with Elections NB, PC promises would cost just over $1.7 billion over four years.

Libertarian answer

Libertarian candidate Donna Allen

“I’m really excited to talk to you,” Libertarian candidate Donna Allen said to Bill Carroll.

“Our party leader for the Libertarians wants to cut the government in half,” she added.

“We have unnecessary committees and a couple of weeks ago, they gave them $10 million,” Allen said.

“We don’t know what the committee’s for. It’s just $10 million that’s gone. So, he wants to start right there and cut the government right in half,” she said.

“So, that’s going to be, I’d say, millions of dollars in savings.”

NOTE: The New Brunswick government’s latest budget projects that spending this year will total $13.3 billion with additional capital spending of $1.2 billion.

Liberal response

Liberal candidate John Higham

“We’ve costed our commitments out to $300 million,” said Liberal candidate John Higham referring to the annual cost of promises outlined in the Liberal platform.

He pointed out that the PC promise to reduce provincial sales tax would cost $450 million per year.

“Mr. Higgs has said he’s not going to have any issue with that,” he said, adding that the PC leader knows that more budget surpluses are on the way and so he decided to take $450 million out of that.

“So, there is no issue for us to meet that $300 million given the way the economy has gone in the last four or five years,” Higham said.

“We’re not going to be anywhere near to spending more money than we have.”

NOTE: According to documents filed with Elections NB, Liberal promises would cost almost $1.3 billion over four years.

NDP answer

NDP candidate Evelyne Godfrey

“I said I was very proud of the platform that our leader Alex White has put together for this election,” said NDP candidate Evelyne Godfrey.

“One of the reasons why I’m very proud of it is that it is fully costed,” she added, referring to the financial projections on the last two pages of the NDP platform.

“We tell you exactly how we’ll pay for everything that we’ve pledged,” she said.

“We’ll be taxing the top one per cent, we’ll be closing tax loopholes, we’ll be making banks and big businesses pay their fair share,” she added.

Godfrey mentioned that taxing the top one per cent of income earners would raise $100 million every year, while closing tax loopholes would raise $104 million and making the banks and big corporations pay more would raise $163 million annually.

NOTE: According to documents filed with Elections NB, NDP promises would cost almost $1.1 billion over four years.

CFTA, 107.9 FM will be broadcasting the all-candidates’ forum from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday.

To listen to a recording on the CHMA-FM website, click here.