Expensive promises for N.B.'s October election are piling up. But will they be honoured?

A history in New Brunswick of expensive campaign promises not being honoured once an election is finished will not be repeated this year, provincial political parties are insisting.

Heidi Cyr, a senior communications adviser and press secretary to Blaine Higgs, said voters can count on the premier to honour a $450-million commitment he made last month to lower the provincial sales tax rate by two percentage points over two years if he is re-elected in October.

"New Brunswickers can trust that thanks to strong fiscal management, including paying down our debt, we are now able to phase-in a 2% cut to the HST," said Cyr in an email about the promise.

"New Brunswickers will be able to see this tax cut roll out on a clear schedule."

It is a firm commitment from Progressive Conservatives, but New Brunswick political parties have a long history of sidestepping expensive and what appeared to be equally firm commitments made to voters during previous elections.

Higgs himself entered public life in 2010 and one of his first tasks after being appointed finance minister by then premier David Alward was to wriggle out of a pricey election property tax promise Alward had made to seniors weeks earlier. 

Higgs said the promise, which involved permanently freezing the assessed value of houses belonging to anyone over the age of 65 for as long as they owned and lived in their home, was a poor idea and too expensive.

Instead, Higgs concocted a much cheaper scheme where seniors could defer paying tax increases until they died or moved. 

Legislation was passed to allow the province to place liens on participating seniors' homes so it could collect unpaid taxes, plus interest, later.  

The substitute plan was not well received, and only a fraction of eligible seniors have ever signed on to it.

"The property tax commitment in the platform, I realize that what we did, did not meet the expectations of what people thought they were going to get," Higgs explained at a public meeting in 2011 about why the promise was not honoured as written.

"In 10 years time, it would have cost the province $173 million."

During his own period as party leader, Higgs has also made the decision to walk away from expensive campaign promises.

In the 2018 election under Higgs, PCs made a commitment to "eliminate" provincial property taxes on apartment buildings as government finances improved.