J.P. Lewis is an associate professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. (Image submitted)
An associate political science professor at UNB Saint John believes any budget put forward by the Higgs government will be a test on what the government was doing pre-covid and everything they have done since.
J.P. Lewis reminds us that prior to the world shutting down, potential overnight closures at six provincial emergency rooms were haunting the government.
“Just over a year ago, this government was facing a lot of opposition to some changes they wanted to make to health care delivery,” Lewis said.
Lewis is curious see if the government returns to any political normalcy and its pre-pandemic policies.
“Is this still mostly a budget influenced by what’s happening with COVID-19? Are the Tories going to start showing some of their stripes that they did, I wouldn’t even say the last election campaign but, the one before that,” Lewis said.
Lewis wonders if the premier will uses future decreases in federal transfer payments as a way to be cautious.
“New Brunswick is so reliant on the Federal government that if down the road, those transfers end up getting cut as the Federal government tries to balance its books that could have a major impact on the revenue of the provincial government,”
Finance Minister Ernie Steeves delivers his budget on Tuesday afternoon.
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