2009-03-17
15:01:01
(Finance Minister Victor Boudreau purchases new tie for his budget speech - photo by CNB)
(By Kevin Bissett - the Canadian Press)
The Graham government is axing jobs and programs, and plunging the province deeper into debt with a budget it claims will guide the province through the economic storm The $7.8-billion package released today adds close to a billion dollars to the province's net debt, reaching $8.3 billion by 2010.
Finance Minister Victor Boudreau confirms 700 jobs will be cut from the civil service in the year ahead, and says additional jobs will be eliminated as more programs are reduced.
Personal and corporate income taxes will be cut by $144 million in 2009-10 and the number of tax brackets will be reduced from four to two by 2012.
Boudreau says the province will return to balanced budgets by 2012, but he's not counting an expected $300-million pension payment, which would leave the 2012-13 budget in the red. The government is spending $2.3 billion on health care, but is reintroducing ambulance fees that were eliminated by the previous Conservative government.
Highlights of the New Brunswick budget:
- 2009-10 budget projects a $741-million deficit in a $7.8 billion spending program.
- Net Debt to reach $8.3 billion by 2010, an increase of $969 million. Share of debt for every person in province is about $11,050.
- A total of 700 jobs to be cut from the civil service in 2009-10 and wages frozen for two years.
- $144 million in tax cuts. By 2012, personal income taxes will move from the current four-rate, four-bracket system to two rates and two brackets.
- General corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 13 per cent in 2008 to eight per cent in 2012.
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