The Liberals are promising money that doesn’t exist, Premier Rodney MacDonald said Thursday.
The Liberals’ election platform included several promises — mainly cutting the small business tax from five to one per cent — that comes from existing money. The Liberals want to reduce the Industrial Expansion Fund and move that money to cutting the gas tax.
MacDonald said that doesn’t make sense. “It’s money that is borrowed and then it’s a floating fund where money is coming in and going out,” MacDonald said. “It’s not grant money. They would have to go out and borrow money to give a tax cut to small businesses.”
MacDonald called the platform a wish list and said it would bring back the days of big Liberal deficits in the 1990s.
The NDP also used the term “wish list” in their attacks on the platform. NDP MLA Maureen MacDonald said the platform had some good ideas but nothing to immediately help the economy, and that the cost and timeline for many ideas are vague.
