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Big response to appeal for ideas from public employees on how to deal with provincial budget deficit.
Fredericton (2 Feb. 2011) - Public employees across New Brunswick are swamping Conservative Premier David Alward with ideas on how to constructively cut budget costs without damaging public services.
CBC News says information obtained through access to information legislation shows that more than 1,100 ideas have been put forward in response to an appeal from the premier for advice from government employees.
Alward sent an online video to public employees shortly after taking office from the Liberals in October asking for ideas on wrestling down the deficit, projected to top $820 million.
CBC News says it has obtained 500 e-mail responses sent to the premier, including ideas for reducing education and health care administrative costs. The tips also include suggestions for using free, open-source software for word processing and switching to digital documents to save paper.
Others have suggested that the province could boost revenues by bringing back Trans-Canada Highway tolls and boosting the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to 15%. Alward has already rejected these proposals.
Finance Minister Blaine Higgs will table his first budget in March.
The New Brunswick Union of Public and Private Employees (NBUPPE/NUPGE) has urged the government to take a new path when the budget is introduced.
The union's ideas were put forward last month in a joint commentary by Tom Mann, NBUPPE's executive director, and James Clancy, president of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).
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The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
More information:
• The future of New Brunswick: James Clancy and Tom Mann say it's time for something completely different.