Fog Blog New NB Government Mothballs 2 Big Provincial Projects Log:

THE NEW BLAINE HIGGS PC GOVERNMENT HAS CANCELLED 2 BIG PROFILE PROJECTS IN THE PROVINCE AFTER FINDING THAT THERE IS NOT ENOUGH MONEY IN THE PROVINCIAL BUDGET TO SUPPORT THESE MULTI- MILLION DOLLAR PROJECTS.....ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK IS THE EXPANSION OF THE CENTENNIAL BUILDING AND ADDING ON OF A NEW COURT HOUSE AND THE PROPOSED NEW WATERFRONT MUSEUM FOR SAINT JOHN AT MARKET SLIP!.......FREDERICTON -- The federal intergovernmental affairs minister has launched an attack on the Tory premier of his home province, after dramatic project cuts that left millions of federal dollars on the table.Dominic LeBlanc said the cuts announced Tuesday in the New Brunswick government's capital budget were done in a "unilateral and belligerent" way."I think that they were irresponsible cuts that won't help the New Brunswick economy," he said in an interview Wednesday, museum leaders weren't consulted about decision to nix New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs answers questions from the media at Government House in Fredericton on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc addresses the media in Saskatoon, Sask., Wednesday, September 12, 2018.

The Tory government is cutting $265 million from planned spending, including postponing the twinning of sections of Route 11, which runs through LeBlanc's federal riding.LeBlanc said Premier Blaine Higgs had lots of opportunity to discuss the cuts with him while the two were at the first ministers' meeting in Montreal last week, but instead he learned of the cuts through the media Tuesday."Normally if you're paying 50 per cent of a particular initiative you don't have 100 per cent of the decision-making authority. I think it augers very poorly for other things that he'll want to do with the Government of Canada," LeBlanc said."These things have always worked through a negotiation and co-operative arrangement. He seems to have a different approach which I don't think is in the long term interests of the New Brunswick economy."In the provincial legislature Wednesday, Higgs said past governments have had a thirst to generate projects just to get federal funding, but he said a taxpayer-funded economy is never successful."We have infrastructure we need to fix. We have bridges, we have roads, we have schools, we have places we need to put money for the future of our province. We don't need to invent in projects because there's money in Ottawa to pay half the cost. I don't need 50-cent dollars for projects I don't need," Higgs said.Donald Wright, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick, said Higgs and his minority government may have only a short mandate, and is making tough decisions early in an effort to balance the books."Higgs wants to play to his strengths as the competent fiscal manager who is not going to drive this province over the cliff," Wright said. "He's probably looking at a two-year mandate. Better to do it now, early in that mandate, than later in the mandate."