Provincial Budget -- NB Liberal Party leader Kevin Vickers weighs in

NB Liberal Party leader Kevin Vickers sats down with Charlotte County Television in St. Stephen to discuss his reaction to Premier Blaine Higgs' budget.

"The whole issue about this budget for us in the Liberal Party is the whole issue of trust," said New Brunswick Liberal Party leader Kevin Vickers on Wednesday at the Garcelon Civic Centre in St. Stephen, just a day after Finance Minister Ernie Steeves presented the surplus budget on March 10, 2020. 

"It is our understanding right now that the people of New Brunswick--in particular, the people of the medical community in the affected areas where the healthcare cuts were going to be implemented--lost trust in this government," continued Vickers. "We, the Liberal Party, do not have trust in the Premier, nor his government. That is why we will be voting against this budget." 

Vickers said he and his party don't believe Higgs' budget is entirely bad -- just that it's too little, too late.

"The budget itself has a number of excellent items that we think are very positive, including the increased use of nurse practitioners, increased services with the ambulance service," explained Vickers."The difficulty we have is that, with last year's budget, this government promised no cuts to healthcare in the communities that saw on February 11th their facilities and their emergency rooms that the acute beds in their hospitals were going to be closed -- this, when they were told there were going to be no cuts to healthcare."

Vickers went on to insist that areas of New Brunswick, such as the St. Croix riding where there will be a by-election on June 15, 2020, might still be under threat to experience healthcare cutbacks. "St. Stephen, for example, has a very important community hospital. Do we trust Premier Higgs to keep this facility open? The answer is no," said Vickers.

Despite Vickers' insistence that the vast majority of the NB Liberals will be voting against the budget on March 20, 2020, Gerry Lowe, a Liberal MLA from Saint John, is still considering how he will vote. Lowe believes his riding can benefit from the PC budget, but he still hasn't publicly stated how he plans to vote. 

"Gerry has a decision to make. I understand he is still mulling this over," said Vickers. "I think Gerry will vote with us." 

If necessary, Vickers said he will recall Liberal Daniel Guitard from his role as Speaker if it proves necessary to secure one more vote for his party.

"I've repeated publicly that we are going to do whatever it takes to take down this government," said Vickers.