The Liberals will not eliminate the provincial sales tax on electricity bills, as it committed to do during the campaign.

It will instead pay for an equivalent rebate to ratepayers on monthly bills from N.B. Power and three local municipal power utilities.

The speech contains no explanation of why the government is opting for a rebate, and the savings for ratepayers would be the same.

Eliminating the sales tax on power bills was a signature promise of the Liberals that Holt made on the very first day of the election campaign.

"We're going to apply this 10-per-cent tax cut to bills you are already paying today so that you can save money immediately," she said on Sept. 19.

But she later clarified the savings wouldn't be immediate because removing the tax would require legislation, as well as 120 days' notice to the federal government — pushing the earliest possible implementation date to April 1, 2025.

  Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy delivered the speech that was drafted by the government. (Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick)

Holt said during the campaign the promise would save the average household $192 per year and would cost the province $90 million annually in lost revenue starting in 2025-26.

Other affordability promises remain intact, according to the speech drafted by the government and delivered in the legislature by Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy. 

"New Brunswickers are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living as the price for things like gas, power and rent continue to go up," Murphy said.

"Your government is committed to making your life more affordable through targeted measures that will make a meaningful difference in your day-to-day life." 

The province will repeal the so-called "carbon adjustor" from the province's gasoline price regulation law. 

Tuesday's throne speech reiterated a range of Liberal campaign promises. (Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick livestream)

The Higgs government added the adjustor clause to allow gasoline producers and distributors to pass on the cost of federal clean fuel regulations to customers. The surcharge fluctuates and is 4.5 cents per litre this week.

The speech also re-commits to a legislated rent cap that will limit increases to three per cent a year.

Holt said when she was sworn in on Nov. 2 that the cap would take effect Feb. 1.

The speech confirms that all registered nurses, nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses will get retention bonuses of $10,000 this year and $5,000 next year.

The Liberals said during the election campaign that this year's bonuses would cost $74.3 million, though Finance Minister René Legacy hedged on that figure last week when he released a fiscal update projecting a $92.1-million deficit this year. 

The speech repeats Holt's campaign promise to deliver balanced budgets in "every year of its mandate."

Legacy argued last week that the current 2024-25 fiscal year, that began April 1, is not covered by that promise.

The speech also reiterates a range of other Liberal campaign promises including:

• Supporting the opening of 10 community care clinics in 2024, the first group of 30 that Holt has promised to open before 2028.

• Overhauling how doctors and other primary care providers are paid by Medicare to make it easier for them to work in community care clinics.

• Implementing universal free-breakfast and pay-what-you-can lunch programs in all New Brunswick schools.

• Working with municipalities to provide housing plus wraparound services to address chronic homelessness.

• Increasing the number of residency seats for psychiatrists and clinic psychologists and developing a training and retention plan, so that more professionals are available to address a growing need for mental health services, including within schools.

• Working with Ottawa to take the provincial sales tax off the construction of new rental housing as a way of spurring the creation of more housing.

• Ensuring that large industrial emitters "bear the brunt" of carbon pricing.

• Improving relationships with First Nations, including new tax-sharing agreements to replace the deals terminated by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

• Adopting a range of measures to encourage better transparency, such as changes to the province's right to information legislation, a strengthened registry of lobbyists, better protection for whistleblowers and a ban on out-of-province donations to political parties.