GST holiday: New Brunswick would like to recover the shortfall from Ottawa

New Brunswick Finance Minister calls furlough a “good idea” TPS two months announced by the federal government. He now wants to find a way for his province to recover the shortfall.

Last Thursday, Justin Trudeau announced his intention to suspend the TPS — the goods and services tax — from December 14 to February 15, on a large number of products, including normally taxed foods and children’s items.

The Premier of New Brunswick, Susan Holtlike its counterparts in other provinces, received very little clarification or notice of the measure, intended according to Ottawa to relieve families hit by rising prices.

Susan Holt estimates that the federal Liberals’ decision would create a shortfall of $62 million in his province’s coffers.

In interview Sunday at Rosemary Barton Liveon television CBCits Minister of Finance suggested that New Brunswick intends to negotiate with Ottawa to find a way to recover this money.

We try to update ourselves, get the details and discuss themsays René Legacy. If we had had more time to prepare, I’m not sure it would have changed anything.

Our government has been talking with the federal government for several weeks. Our teams had bilateral discussions on many topics. Our feeling is that we will be able to improve the situation by the end of the yearsaid the representative of the new liberal government, sworn in at the beginning of the month.

It’s no secret that the previous government did not have a very good relationship with the federal government. We are trying to rebuild it and see if there are things that were left on the table, because I would say that the former Prime Minister was stubborn in not wanting agreementsadded René Legacy.

Significant portion of the provincial budget

The minister does not oppose the leave of TPS proposed by the federal government, and finds that the public reaction has been positive.

We campaigned on a platform focused on affordability. It would be difficult to say that we don’t like the idea just because it didn’t come from ushe said.

We want these benefits to help New Brunswickers, like other Canadians.adds the minister. Throughout the campaign, we’ve been talking about affordability issues, people have been telling us how difficult it is. If we can give them a little extra help, that’s a good idea.

That’s probably less than 1%, or maybe 0.5%, of the total budget.says René Legacy. It is now a matter of confirming the figures and balancing our budget.

As Minister of Finance, the good thing is that it is an exceptional measure, rather than a structural cost repeated every yearhe notes.

Canada’s Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, appeared open to negotiation.

I don’t think the provincial governments want to resist the idea of ​​giving a little support, a little help to families before Christmas, but I understand that they others have budgets to make. So, we’re going to work with themsaid the New Brunswick federal MP in an interview Friday at The morning from ICI Acadie.

With information from the show Rosemary Barton Live