Higgs says he's holding off on inflation relief in case of election
Premier says New Brunswickers should lobby Liberal leader on federal policies that drive inflation
Premier Blaine Higgs says he is holding off on cost-of-living relief for New Brunswickers in case he needs to announce those measures in a possible election campaign.
The premier made the comments to reporters after Opposition Liberal Leader Susan Holt declared she will push for an election this fall — a shift in her position.
Holt slammed the Progressive Conservative government's throne speech for containing no specific new policies to help people cope with inflation.
Finance Minister Ernie Steeves promised Sept. 27 that he would take new affordability measures to cabinet within weeks and would announce them "fairly soon."
But Higgs said he can't do that until he establishes first whether five rebellious PC MLAs in his caucus will support him or help the opposition trigger an election.
"There's an element of that," he said. "We will need it in a platform."
Higgs said a party's platform is normally released in the third week of an election campaign, and he's not announcing inflation relief measures now "because an election is still a possibility."
The premier was responding to a new tone from Holt, who in her official response to the throne speech introduced an amendment that declares no confidence in the Higgs government.
She told reporters she would invite the five offside Tory MLAs to vote for her amendment, just as they defied Higgs to vote with the Liberals in June on their motion calling for more consultations on Policy 713.
If that motion passed, it would trigger an election.
Until this week, Holt wasn't calling for an election, saying New Brunswickers didn't want one even though they needed a change in government.
Now she says, "every day it gets worse, and more and more New Brunswickers tell us they want Higgs gone and that they deserve better.… We need a new premier and we need a new government."
Higgs blames Trudeau government
Higgs said people who can't afford the high cost of food, housing and gas, and who can't wait for his campaign platform, should be "going after" Holt and her connections with the Trudeau government, whose carbon tax he blamed for inflation.
"The reason we're in this state is because of federal energy policies," he said.
"It's simple. Let's not put Band-Aids on a problem that originates from the Ottawa regulations."
The premier called the tax "the major issue driving inflation," even though other countries without carbon taxes, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have had higher rates of inflation this year.
He said his government could still introduce relief measures without an election but he gave no timeline for when that might happen.
The throne speech said only that the PCs would "consider" income tax and property tax reductions.
Holt's amendment declaring no confidence in the government will come up for a vote on Oct. 27.
She acknowledged in a scrum with reporters that the five MLAs who voted with her in June have said they won't try to bring down the government.
Two of them, Jeff Carr and Dorothy Shephard, sent messages to CBC News on Thursday restating that they'll support the government during the vote.
That makes Holt's motion largely symbolic, but "we have lost confidence in this government and that's how we express that."
Holt was surrounded by Liberal MLAs and potential election candidates for the party, including Luke Randall, who ran for the Green Party in Fredericton North in 2020.
"We're thrilled to have Luke here with us," Holt said.
Randall, a business owner, won 31.4 per cent of the vote for the Greens in 2020, placing second behind PC candidate Jill Green.
He said running for the Greens three years ago was "the right decision at the right time," but he was switching to the Liberals, "a party that can win," to unite voters who want Higgs removed from power.
"I really felt like we need to bring this community together," he said. "We are truly all New Brunswickers first, and we need to get on the same team together, and Susan Holt is the perfect leader … to do that," he said.
Green Leader David Coon said by recruiting a well-known former Green candidate, Holt was risking splitting the vote in Fredericton North and allowing the PCs to win the seat again.
"What's she's focused on, I believe, is trying to win a majority government, and we're saying things are only going to get better if there are more Greens in the Legislative Assembly, and that will bring about a minority government."
Coon said Green MLAs will vote against the PC throne speech next week, but will have to discuss whether to support the Liberal no-confidence amendment.
"I haven't heard a great outcry from people in my riding or around the province for an election at this moment," he said.
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