New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservatives are promising tax cuts if re-elected.
Leader Blaine Higgs said his party would cut the HST to 13 per cent from 15 per cent.
Party officials made the promise Thursday morning during four simultaneous news conferences.
“Our financial position moving toward Budget 2025 is strong which makes it possible for us to cut the HST by one per cent next spring and let New Brunswickers keep more of their own money. Then in 2026, we’ll reduce it another one per cent bringing it to 13 per cent,” Higgs says.
The HST comprises the federal five per cent GST and the provincial component, which is currently 10 per cent.
Higgs says once the full reduction is done, the average New Brunswick family will save around $1,000 a year.
“Rolling this out now gets people prepared to make these changes in the new year and it recognizes our ability and fiscal responsibility to be able to do this. I think it is an important time for people to understand what our focus is,” Higgs adds.
The PC leader says New Brunswick is one of the provinces carrying the heaviest sales tax burdens in the country and he blames the previous Liberal government.
New Brunswick voters will head to the polls no later than Oct. 21. Higgs was asked if it could be sooner than that.
“Did anyone here think this might be an election announcement? Hopefully, you’re not disappointed. The election date is October 21st, and we know it won’t be later than that,” he joked.
Promise a ‘last-ditch effort’ to buy votes: Liberals
Meanwhile, the Opposition Liberals said a promise to cut the HST is nothing more than an attempt to buy votes.
“If you ask economists, they will tell you this is not the best or smartest move for our province. This isn’t the way to help people who are struggling,” Leader Susan Holt told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
“This isn’t a fiscally responsible move. This feels like a lazy, desperate attempt — a last-ditch effort — to try and buy votes of New Brunswickers.”
Holt said her party understands the decision will cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year and questions where that money will come from.
The Liberal leader said her party has no plans to reduce the HST like the Tories are promising to do.
Instead, they want to remove the provincial tax on electricity bills and get rid of the carbon cost adjuster on fuel prices.
“We know that New Brunswickers are struggling and they need specific and targeted relief that recognizes the people that are vulnerable in our province and the kind of help that they need,” said Holt.
Holt said her party would focus on addressing the problems facing New Brunswickers, such as shortages in the health care and education systems.
