New Brunswick throne speech: 'Significant choices' loom in budget

The Liberal government of Premier Brian Gallant is repeating its pledge to make "all the decisions" needed to balance the budget during the new session of the Legislature.

The Liberals used the speech from the throne, delivered today by Lt.-Gov. Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau, to lay out its case again for fast action on new tax revenue and spending cuts.

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The speech comes just four days after the government released a report on tax and cut options that it will choose from when it drafts its next budget.

"Instead of tinkering around the edges, significant choices need to be made in the upcoming budget," the speech says.

"Your government needs to bring deficit budgeting to an end. All the decisions that will get our province there will be presented to New Brunswickers in this session."

The Liberals are projecting a $453-million deficit this year, including a $150-million cushion that won't be spent unless government projections are inaccurate. The provincial government's accumulated debt will reach $12.4 billion.

The speech notes that the province spends more each year on interest payments on that debt than it does on post-secondary education.

"Your government is not the first to sound the alarm bell," the speech says.

"But until now, no one has really heeded that alarm. The inability for a government to balance the books since 2007 means the problem has compounded. That has to end. As a province we need to make better choices."

Strategic program review released

The Liberal platform promises to balance the budget by 2020.

Last week's report spelled out about $1 billion worth of options. They include raising the Harmonized Sales Tax, imposing highway tolls, laying off more teachers, and closing some small hospitals.

The Liberals say they want to choose from among those options to come up with roughly $600 million in savings and revenue.

"Some of the choices contained in this report are a significant departure from current practice and processes, while others would have an impact on a large number of New Brunswickers," the speech says.

With a provincial budget typically delivered in March, there's little time for New Brunswickers to express themselves about the options on last week's report.

But the throne speech points out that the Liberals already held 14 public consultation sessions attended by more than 1,200 people, as well as other sessions with organizations and community and business leaders.

The speech also tries to preempt criticism of potential cuts by reminding voters that Gallant reduced the size of his cabinet and cut their salaries.

"Strategic Program Review is not about broad cuts that force the public service to do more with less, nor is it about randomly cutting programs," the speech says

"These approaches have been tried in the past and they did not work. Now is the time to transform government by focusing on investing in the needs and priorities of New Brunswick's changing population."

Carbon tax pondered byother provinces

Gallant is due to travel to Paris later this week to attend part of the United Nations' climate change summit, where countries are hoping to reach a new international agreement on emissions.

Several other provinces, including Alberta, have introduced a carbon tax. Gallant has said he's open to the idea, but it's not among the options listed in last week's report.

While Gallant told CBC last week his government was "not necessarily in as much of a rush" as other provinces to introduce a new climate change plan the previous government updated it in June 2014 the throne speech says the government is "moving closer to finalizing" a new plan.

"It will provide a road map of concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions andincrease the resilience of New Brunswick to climate change through adaptation efforts," the speech says.

"The plan will represent a large step forward to combating climate change and growing our economy in a sustainable manner."