Nearly a year has passed since Conservative Premier David Alward was elected into power on a platform based on keeping the HST rate the same for New Brunswick citizens. The Conservative leader also promised not to impose highway tolls.  Now, after a short time in office, Premier Alward is rethinking his platform and looking at the possibility of going back on both promises.

New Brunswick, already at a 13 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax rate is one of the highest in the country. And although Premier Alward stated that the issues are not currently on the party’s agenda, he is refusing to rule out the possibility of having to raise the HST rate and implement tolls. This is all in response to the looming provincial deficit projected at $546 million.

According to New Brunswick’s Taxpayer Protection Act, Alward would be obligated to call an official referendum should he begin the process of raising the HST rate for the province. Even though this would directly go against Alward’s platform, other leaders are not surprised at the recent talks regarding a referendum.

Liberal leader Victor Boudreau expects that the province may see the referendum question added to the municipal ballots in six months’ time as it would be the economical approach to addressing the issue. While Boudreau is not surprised at the direction of Alward’s leadership, he maintains that raising taxes should be a last resort to addressing the province’s growing deficit and debt. According to Boudreau, jobs should be created, investors should be attracted and then finally, taxes should be addressed.

Municipal elections in New Brunswick are scheduled to take place in mid-May of 2012 when the province could be headed into a referendum vote in conjunction with elections.