NS NDP’s Gary Burrill calls for balanced budgets ‘over the long term’

Nova Scotia’s NDP leader says he isn’t afraid of deficits but “over the long term” he’s in favour of balanced budgets.

“It’s important to be fiscally prudent, we’re in favour of fiscal prudence,” Gary Burrill said in a year-end interview with Global News.

But that fiscal prudence will look very different from the one put forward by the Liberal government — Burrill said the path to balance under him would be decades away in some cases.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil ‘not embarrassed’ by 2016 reversals

“We would look to balancing the budget over the course of the business cycle, for some matters over the course of a generation.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We would look to balancing the budget over the course of the business cycle, for some matters over the course of a generation."

Citing negotiations with teachers as the latest example of the need for upfront investments, Burrill said policy ideas like free college tuition will pay off in the long run with higher taxable income and a more productive work force.

He says the Liberals’ focus on balanced budgets has turned into a “fiscal noose,” resulting in the impasse in public sector negotiations.

He said the Ivany Report calls for this type of long term investment. Asked how his proposal squares with another Ivany goal of reducing the debt to GDP ratio, Burrill said the report is “a little bit like the bible, it contains lots of different prescriptions and not all of them are consistent.”

“The one that I’m talking about is its core idea, I think its best idea, that what we need to do is be very clear about where we need to go as a province.”

Low poll numbers ‘very challenging’: Burrill

The NDP’s consistently low support in recent polls is “very challenging,” Burrill said. But he’s optimistic heading into a possible election year that there is a “wobble” in the Liberals’ dominance.

“The present situation is also politically a very volatile one and one that holds lots of opportunity for us,” he said.

But Don Mills, chairman and CEO of Corporate Research Associates, said if that were the case the NDP should already be reaping the benefits in the polls.

“In an environment where unions are under a lot of pressure you would think [Burrill’s] numbers would be going up substantially,” Mills said. “Maybe they will, but they haven’t.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In an environment where unions are under a lot of pressure you would think [Burrill's] numbers would be going up substantially," Mills said. "Maybe they will, but they haven't."

Burrill said he still thinks his caucus of six has done a good job presenting a “coherent” alternative. But he said he’s also hoping to join them on the floor of the house after the next election.

“When I see the McNeil Liberals in some of their orgies of self congratulation about the wonderful things in their view that they’ve done and I compare it to the real dire situation of lots of people in the province, I often think to myself ‘oh for 1,500 more votes in the last election, that I could be on the floor.'”

The latest poll from Corporate Research Associates put the Liberals ahead with 56 per cent support among decided voters. Meantime, the NDP hold 19 per cent support. The poll is accurate ± 3.5 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times.