The Nova Scotia Liberals have unveiled a $528-million, four-year plan that covers everything from cutting taxes to banning non-recyclable plastic bags.
Party leader Stephen McNeil released his 32-page campaign document, titled A Real Plan, Thursday in Halifax, calling it realistic and affordable.
Most of the Liberal pledges are in the form of tax cuts.
The Liberals are promising to cut the small-business tax from five per cent to one per cent, and to implement a small-loans program for these businesses.
The Liberals say they will chop the fuel tax by one cent a litre every year for four years, which would save drivers more than $166 million over this period. They also pledge to scrap the provincial tax on funerals.
Other promises include:
- banning non-recyclable plastic shopping bags
- forcing Nova Scotia Power to use natural gas to generate electricity
- forcing big oil companies to keep natural gas in Nova Scotia
- paying the tuition of 100 medical students if they agree to go to under-serviced areas
McNeil said he believes he can find $300 million for his $528-million plan within existing budgets, including the cabinet-controlled Industrial Expansion Fund.
But he has also pledged to complete the projects the governing Progressive Conservatives have committed to.
"I have to honour those," McNeil said. "Any future government would have to honour those. Otherwise I'd be Stephen Harper when he tore up the Atlantic Accord, and I'm not Stephen Harper."
McNeil could not say whether his plan would trigger a deficit or whether a Liberal government would add to the province's debt.
"We need to know how deep a deficit we're in to know whether or not it will add to the debt in the end," he said.
Progressive Conservative Leader Rodney MacDonald dismissed the Liberal plan as a "shopping list" the party has no way of paying for.
MacDonald said he agrees with cutting the tax for small business and noted that is in his party's plan.
"But what I have said all along is that the Liberal plan, doing it immediately, would actually cause a larger deficit in Nova Scotia and would cause more problems. We can afford to do it over a period of time. We can't afford to do everything all at once," MacDonald said.
Maureen MacDonald, a New Democrat running for re-election, said the list of promises shows McNeil's inexperience.
"Many of them aren't costed, with no time frame for implementation," she said. "We're not really sure where the revenue would come from."
Nova Scotians go to the polls June 9.
With files from The Canadian Press
