Blaine Higgs Says Voters Deserve To Have Their Tax Dollars Well Spent
FREDERICTON – David Campbell, a New Brunswick economic development writer and consultant would say, “It’s about the economy, stupid,” the name of an insightful and interesting blog that he’s written for years.
Others like Krista Ross of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce put it more diplomatically, arguing that the provision of social services like health care and education depends upon a robust economy that generates tax money to pay for them.
But however they frame their arguments – bluntly or more gently persuasive – many business people, economists, and economic development consultants and experts say much the same thing: a healthy economy is a foundation for a strong province.
With this in mind, I had conversations with some of the leaders of the province’s main political parties about the economy in advance of the vote next Monday, September 24.
Today, we hear from Progressive Conservative Party Leader Blaine Higgs, a former Irving Oil executive and finance minister in the last PC provincial government.
Here is an edited and condensed version of our conversation:
What is it about your life experience or work history outside politics that would make you a good steward of the province’s economy?
I come with a long history outside of politics – a 33-year career in the business that you had to get results in order to stay employed. I often think when I left retired from Irving Oil that I should have gotten the bumper sticker that [said] I survived Irving. I’m an engineer by profession, but I progressed through various levels of the organization and operations management in the mid-part of my career and then I went into the transportation management sector in the second part.
In both of those cases, I travelled around the world with the team negotiating major deals for the company for projects, for supplies … business deals, commercial deals. I’m used to getting better value for the money being spent. What I’m kind of shocked at when I think of people that do run for office in a senior [position like] premier, less than eight per cent of the time have we had anyone remotely associated to business practices in the premier’s office.
The connection that I make here is that business is always in the realm of providing better service to customers in order to stay employed, whether they’re manufacturing something or they’re directly serving the public. People will say, ‘government’s not a business.’ I say it’s not a business for profit, but it is a business to deliver better service for the money being spent, and that money being spent is coming directly from taxpayers pockets. It should be even more critical then than it would’ve been for me over the many years working for a private company.
What is your current position on shale gas development?
Corridor said they’d come back to Sussex because in three years time we’re going to run out of domestic supply and it’s very well publicized. Our energy costs are going to go up by 30 per cent because all of the supplies coming from the Midwest by pipeline.
You’re now talking about the regional development of those resources, as opposed to provincewide. Why would you move away from your previous government’s support of the development of shale gas across the province?
Because it wasn’t supported across the province. Clearly, there was a lot of areas that just didn’t want to pursue it. The area that we want to focus on is the area that actually wants to pursue this – the Sussex region. So we continue to get it established and I’m hopeful that others would say, ‘Oh well that’s worked out. They’ve got a good plan to get the strongest environmental commitments and the ability to ensure that the water is treated properly before it’s released.’ Maybe then we’re able to move it forward. But right now let’s just focus on an area that wants to proceed because, ultimately, if we don’t have a gas supply in Sussex and the costs go up 30 per cent coming from outside, do you ever think that potash mine is going to reopen?
That’s a huge asset and one day they’ll be back if the conditions are reasonable because they’re shipping potash now by rail to Saint John and then out through our port. And here’s a plant 30 minutes away.
But make it attractive [for them to come back] so that we’re competitive. They’ve got a $2-billion asset stranded there, there’s potash in the ground. I’m convinced that we’ll be back. Let’s not lose sight of these things that provide real jobs and private sector investment.
In the People’s Alliance platform, they talk about doing regional referendums. If you were to pursue shale gas development in other parts of the province apart from Sussex, how would you go about seeing that you had community buy-in? We talk about getting a ‘social license’ from the people, but we don’t really have clear tools on how to determine whether you have it or not.
There isn’t a clear process, I agree. In the Sussex region, you’re working with the municipalities and the LSDs. We can work out a formula there for that, but I don’t want to make this more cumbersome than necessary. Sussex has been very supportive. Municipal council actually passed the motion to move forward and so if it required a referendum at the end of the day that’s a possibility. But I’m not moving in that direction because I think we can work with the communities and just get general support, and general support in a big way.
Is it realistic to think that Energy East could be revived and what would be your government’s role in trying to revive that project?
The main obstacle from the very onset has been Quebec, and Ontario to a lesser degree, but not anymore. So we have alignment really right through to Quebec … Alberta is losing billions each year through a price reduction because they just can’t get the product to market and that’s paying the bills for transfer payments throughout the country. If the federal government had any real interest in a national strategy, they would sit down with Quebec and say, ‘Look, you do very well with transfer payments and we don’t have the money coming in because we don’t have the revenues to support it.’ Have that frank discussion about where the rubber meets the road. Do I ever expect Trudeau to do that? No, I don’t. But that has to happen.
We could do something like Norway, where they took their money and they invested it in renewables. They invested it to diversify their economy because they knew oil wasn’t gonna last forever. I know that and I’m not trying to reinvigorate the industry. We can utilize the revenues to rebuild a greener economy and make sure that so much of this money does not go in that direction. But to say that, ‘oh well we’ll just shut it off now and hope for the best.’ Meanwhile, consumers get hit with major increases in the cost of living in New Brunswick and it’s kind of an island unto itself, unique for the competitors around us. We continue to erode our ability the more we shield ourselves from our ability to compete in the market.
What is your thinking on developing renewable energy and that economy and the province?
We had a 40 per cent renewable program through NB Power and I don’t agree with the idea we need to have a carbon tax in order to fund that. I don’t agree that we need to tax people anymore to do that…There’s money in RDC (Regional Development Corporation), there’s money in Opportunities Brunswick to invest in renewable energy and you could take the money today that is invested in other projects that you might have very limited results from other than trying to just make political donations around the province. You could [say] this is dedicated towards research and development and green technology enhancements. So the money is there – hundreds of millions of dollars. Prioritize where it’s being spent.
Would you look at both personal tax reductions and also business tax reductions like the double tax on apartment owners?
Yes, I would in the sense of comparison with other promises. The double tax is unique to New Brunswick and that’s on our platform. I have an eight-year plan to bring this down over time based on our ability to do so. I already had started that back in 2012. We had a four-year plan that the government continued until 2016 but then stopped and didn’t go any further. So we were already doing that…
If you look at the personal income taxes, yeah, they’re high. We’ve chased professionals out of the province. That tax on the one per cent, people that are in business find ways to park that in different areas. It’s my understanding that when I talked to different investment firms, accounting firms, they’re saying that the money actually went down. The government said we’ll get $30-million out of this and they actually lost $30-million because people don’t take money out of their businesses. They decide they’re going to do deal with salary differently. They reinvest the money in other provinces that are more for friendly.
So we shoot ourselves right in the foot by thinking we can tax people and spend money without any results and then you just see private sector investment start to disappear. In the last year, we’ve lost 6,000 private sector jobs. The writing is on the wall. We cannot do these things in isolation and expect people to look at New Brunswick as a place to invest.
New Brunswick under my watch is open for business. There’s no question about that. I want private money renewing our economy. We’ve got to stop the idea that we can just tax people more and they’ll just take it.
What is your view on the proper role of government in creating jobs?
Work with every business in the province and say, ‘What’s the barrier to you investing in New Brunswick?’ And when people come in looking at investments, don’t just hand out money. You say I want a return on this investment and I want a real return. And so put skin in the game. I could go through different examples where money is absolutely just thrown away for short-term job creation. Well, you can see it in highway projects and you’ve heard [Brian] Gallant say many times we’re creating jobs. Government jobs that are funded by the taxpayer are not creating any sustainability in the long haul. It’s just providing an avenue to buy votes for the next four years.
What’s your view on the use of payroll rebates and other incentives to attract companies to New Brunswick?
I think there is a room for payroll rebates. The idea is having long-term commitments so it’s not just until the money runs out. I like to see a return on investment for taxpayers dollars and the calculation reflects that. So if Opportunities New Brunswick is investing in different areas, it really is an investment. The money comes back to them so they can go out and invest again – not just another $100-million every year to fill their budget needs. I want our dollars to work for us and that’s possible.
Are you optimistic about growth in the economy and jobs over the next four years?
I am because if you make real decisions that people can understand, they will say New Brunswick is back on track. [But] you have to demonstrate that. My goal is to show people that we’re making decisions that make sense for them and they will say, ‘I can look at New Brunswick once again.’ The goal is showing people that we’re serious and demonstrating that through real behaviour.
This was an edited and condensed conversation with Progressive Conservative Party Leader Blaine Higgs, part of a series of interviews with provincial political leaders in advance of the September 24 election.
Past Interviews:
- Brian Gallant Inspired By Early Family Financial Struggles To Campaign For A Fair Economy
- David Coon Says A Local, Green Economy Could Create 14,000 New Jobs
- Jennifer McKenzie Sees Potential In N.B. Entrepreneurial Drive And Spirit