Higgs slams 'abuse,' 'negativity' over $300 affordability payments

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Premier Blaine Higgs says he’s been subjected to “abuse” over the $300 affordability payments and is slamming media “negativity” since the announcement was made.

That’s led the opposition parties to accuse him of “playing the victim,” and of making a self-serving move solely designed to win votes.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Higgs said the payments, which could cost taxpayers up to $75 million and which will go to households with a net income of $70,000 or less a year, should be a “good news” story.

That’s how it was initially reported. But questions emerged as the government slowly released more information.

For example, Higgs, who announced the payments during January’s State of the Province address, didn’t initially mention that New Brunswickers had to have earned at least $3,000 to qualify. He also didn’t mention that people would have to apply to get the money. It’s since been revealed that they will have until June 30 to do so.

One detail Higgs did offer while speaking to reporters at the State of the Province address was that the payments were expected to roll out in February and March, but that’s no longer the case. The government recently admitted that payments will take between six and eight weeks to process – a message that is included on the online application form, which launched on Tuesday.

Despite all that, Higgs blamed the media for negatively spinning the story.

Asked why he feels that way, Higgs fired back: “Well you could read your articles over the past two weeks, that would be a start.”

“We put this measure in place because of a group that was missed, the working class that are experiencing every day the actual costs of energy, to travel … we had basically done a lot with the seniors’ benefits, with social assistance, but we hadn’t really done what we could maybe for the working class,” he said.

Later, Higgs said a recent Brunswick News story about the government needing to redeploy 15 existing staff and hire 40 more staff to process the payments was a “clear example of a part of a story being told.”

“What happens there, in order to get (the payments) out in a rapid time, recognizing that we expect about 250,000 applications, we’re going to use about 15 people, and move staff from one location to another, and the number (of new staff) that Service New Brunswick is projecting is about 40 casuals that may be hired for a month,” Higgs said.

“They could come in, be hired for a month, and then that’s it. So this is not 40 new people on staff, full-time equivalents, this is 40 people who would maybe be here for a month … to get these out quickly, rather than take six months or a year to process 250,000 applications.”

The Brunswick News story didn’t say the 40 new hires would be full-time employees, or get full-time jobs.

At a legislative committee last week, Liberal MLA Keith Chiasson grilled deputy finance minister Cheryl Hansen about the affordability payments.

“My concern is the cost to process and look after all these applications,” he said. “I imagine 250,000 applications, this is going to be more than one or two months, I imagine this is going to be at least six months to process everything.”

Hansen didn’t disagree.

“You are correct,” she said. “We’ll have to see which applications come in relative to staffing.”

On Tuesday, Higgs didn’t repeat a statement he made on CBC Radio, where he said the amount of criticism had led him to wonder why the government is making the payments at all. Instead, he walked that back, saying that he didn’t have any regrets about the program, and that he’s used to taking a lot of “abuse.”

He reiterated that many of the groups who won’t qualify for this payment – including retirees and people living on social assistance – have already benefited from other programs recently rolled out by the government, including the Emergency Food and Fuel Benefit, which sent two payments of $200 to social assistance recipients.

The government has also made recent changes to help seniors facing cost-of-living challenges.

Higgs’s comments drew scorn from opposition politicians, with Green party Leader David Coon saying it’s become obvious that the payments are solely designed to win votes in this year’s election.

“He gave himself a black eye. People believed, after that State of the Province address, that this was something that was going to help them, as long as they weren’t making over $70,000 in their households. And that just proved not to be the case,” Coon said.

Former Tory cabinet minister Dominic Cardy, now an independent after a fight with Higgs in October 2022, weighed in on X.

“So much for province before politics, eh Mr. Premier?” he wrote.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt said it’s “really tough to listen to the premier play the victim on this when thousands of people in New Brunswick found out they don’t qualify for something that they were expecting.”

“And now they’re the ones who have to pay for his poor communications. He seems to be showing no compassion, no empathy, and no leadership.”

– With files from Adam Huras