NB Liberal Party Needs a Sober Second Thought

The New Brunswick Liberal Party needs a sober second thought before putting the fate of the NB economy in the hands of the current cabal of neo-liberal ideologues and quack economists of the NB Self Sufficiency Task Force. The Task Force has gone off the road with its new proposal to get quick cash for policies that New Brunswickers reject.

New Brunswickers need a real job creation strategy, not some loony ideas from a task-force that seems only to be able to dream up new ways of taxing the working people of the province. The latest edition from the Self-Sufficiency Task Force on selling NB Liquor Bonds is yet another half thought-out plan to get money to pay for lavish, costly, and unnecessary infrastructure projects. A real made in New Brunswick solution should not equate with selling our economy down the river in a way that will lock in New Brunswick tax-payers into what amounts to a long-term debt-repayment scheme.

It is hard to know where to start doing analysis of the latest ideas coming out of this undemocratic Task Force. The assumptions are bad, the policies are in the wrong direction, and the math doesn't add up.

Unlike the dreamy world created by Francis McGuire and Co., here on earth:

1. Infrastructure development does not equal an increase in provincial GDP or more sustainable jobs.

2. A bond sold to banks and capitalists in New York sticks the working people of New Brunswick with the long term burden of paying higher taxes.

On top of this, the money seems only for infrastructure that will do nothing but subsidise the transport of cheap goods to consumers in the US.

Selling these bonds amounts to NBers paying a flat tax to guarantee the buyer profits on the $500 million investment. It is the worst kind of consumption tax because it cannot be removed and the interest skimmed off the top goes into the pockets of rich bankers in the US instead of back into the NB economy. This would amount to money that the working people of New Brunswick will have to pay years from now, with no longterm benefits guaranteed, and no ability to vote for a government that can withdraw that tax if the policies are not working. And every indication is that the policies proposed will not work.

Bonds are usually sold only in times of major crisis such as during times of war. The economy of New Brunswick is not on the verge of collapse, it just needs some tweaking in a sustainable direction, with a well thought out and democratic plan. Unfortunately, it seems that the Task Force has no plans of seeking these sustainable policies.

The only thing that will come out of moving New Brunswick into a situation where we subsidise transport of cheap goods to the US is bigger profits for large multinational corporations. There are few jobs that result from these policies, the jobs that are produced are not sustainable, and there is no real growth of our economy. These are not the policy solutions that the people of New Brunswick are looking for.

Why is the NB Liberal government's "Task Force" just echoing the economically simplistic ideas put forward by the free market ideologues at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies? Why is there a complete absence of other policy alternatives?

Shawn Graham's Liberal government and the SSTF are hitching our entire future economy to the stagnating US economy and the unpredictable and unsustainable economic growth in China. This model requires that both are going to continue to be based on the US buying goods from China. How long could this arrangement actually be maintained in light of the rising gas prices and concern over climate change? Shipping already currently amounts to 5% of the worlds production of CO2 it is not good policy to tie ones economy directly to a model that should not be and cannot be sustained.

We need real answers for the future direction of the New Brunswick economy, not scribbles made at midnight on a bar napkin, and it has to start with local production. The only way that real solutions for the people of New Brunswick can come about is through an engaged process involving all the people. The citizens of the province know what is wrong and have been saying it loudly for years, our politicians just have not been listening.