New Brunswickers want government to spend taxpayer dollars

Sharon Thompson at the budget consultation on Tuesday

Sharon Thompson, a member of CUPE 2745, which represents educational support staff, doesn’t want the New Brunswick government to cut next year’s education budget. She said that to Minister of Finance Greg Byrne at the pre-budget consultations held this Tuesday in Fredericton.

“When you start cutting the budget on education you force school districts to shut down their libraries, to cut districts until the minimum amount of people are working there,” Thompson said. “The school districts are so strapped for money, for support for these children.”

Thompson came to voice her opinion on the budget along with other New Brunswick residents who urged the government not to cut spending in next year’s budget. New Brunswick residents raised the issues of education, senior health care, catastrophic drug coverage, arts, and transportation at the meeting.

Roland Cormier, a Shediac nursing home worker, said he doesn’t mind giving the money he would save from tax cuts back to the government if the government will keep spending on public services.

“I am willing to give my tax cuts back to the government, because it is essential for this province to provide quality service,” Cormier said.

Barbara Walls, a representative of the New Brunswick Lung Association, urged the government to include smoking cessation medication and expand the smoking ban in public places.

“We have highest hospital admission rates for asthma, we have third highest rates of mortality in the country for lung cancer,” Walls said.

Walls also asked the minister to include in the budget the implementation of a catastrophic drug coverage program. New Brunswick is one of the two provinces that doesn’t offer the program.

However, according to Minister of Finance Greg Byrne some cuts on expenditure are unavoidable. It is projected that the global recession forced the New Brunswick government into an almost $800 million deficit.

Finance minister Greg Byrne.

“Those cuts are necessary and we want your opinion on those reductions because ultimately we must return to a balanced budget,” Byrne said.

The New Brunswick government proposed a four-year plan to return the province to a balanced budget this year. There is still a debate on whether to stretch the plan for five years with less restraint on the budget, or to return to balanced budget in three years with deeper cuts.

“Economy is going to grow but it is going to be constrained for a period of time,” Byrne said.

The Minister of Finance, in his brief presentation overviewing the budget, said that education and health care will take priority in next year’s budget. Byrne also said that it is necessary to attract more people to the province as New Brunswick will face a demographic crisis in 2020.

“We won’t have issues of unemployment; we will have issues of having people to fill the jobs,” the Minister said. Byrne said that for now his mission is to consider what residents of New Brunswick have to say about next year’s budget.

“I am here to listen, not to debate,” Byrne said.

The budget will be tabled in the legislature on December 1.

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Posted by Damira Davletyarova on Oct 17, 2009. Filed under News, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.