A letter from the premier addressed to mayor Don Darling has promised the province will work to help the cash-strapped city which has just passed a controversial budget but exactly how so was not specified.
Premier Brian Gallant says in-depth discussions on this particular issue have been ongoing for the last few weeks and will continue over the next few as they haven’t made a decision on what that help will look like.
“If we would have landed on how we’re going to be able to do this, we would have announced it already. This is complex, as you can imagine. We as a province need the city of Saint John to be flourishing, we need it to be stronger than it is,” says Gallant.
“There’s some interesting ideas on how we as a provincial government would be able to help the city of Saint John overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities before them…the letter was also a little bit of a heads up that discussions are going well and we do want to play a role.”
Premier Gallant was asked for his thoughts of council approving its budget and he says he’s not going to comment on their decisions.
“They were elected to make those decisions and we certainly respect that. I can just tell you what our thoughts are on how to bring a province or a city back to balance and ensure that we have a good quality of life for the people of New Brunswick is to focus on growth.”
One of the most publicized facets of the city’s 2018 budget is the $1.25-million cuts to both the police and fire department, and in the letter, Gallant states that they want to work with Darling to avoid cuts to front-line services.
