NB Budget: No Stone Left Unturned
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FREDERICTON—New Brunswick’s Groundhog Day budget sees a host of new taxes and cuts aimed at fixing the province’s tenuous financial position.
“No stone was left unturned,” said Finance Minister Roger Melanson as he tabled his budget in the New Brunswick legislature.
Indeed.
Look beyond the big ticket increases to the HST and corporate income tax rate, and cuts to the province’s large civil service, and you’ll see a host of other measures, some small, others significant, that contribute to the $589 million in cuts and tax increases contained in the budget.
These include:
- Amalgamating the government’s 40 contact centres (!) into four regional business centres to save $3.5 million annually
- Centralizing land registry offices from 13 offices to one
- Not replacing the Gagetown ferry, saving about $5 million in capital costs
- Looking for private sector operators for the Larry’s Gulch fishing camp and Mactaquac Provincial Park golf course
- Closing the Visitor Information Centres in Cape Jourimain and Campobello
- Reducing the number of government agencies, boards and commissions by 15 per cent
- Consolidating non-medical laboratory services to save $600,000 annually
- Eliminating the Municipal Fine Revenue Sharing Program
- Renegotiating the license management fees for forest operators
- Allowing New Brunswickers to opt-out of vehicle registration reminders
- “Rightsizing” (i.e. reduce) the industry assistance budget
- Restructuring provincial court services
The New Brunswick government still expects to run a deficit of $347 million in 2016-2017 but projects to reach a surplus position by 2020.
