Taxes, fees and bankruptcies up as Newfoundland and Labrador budget reverberates

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador is now leading all provinces for inflation — but critics say the full impact of its tax-hiking spring budget still hasn’t kicked in.

The latest consumer price index report from Statistics Canada confirmed those cost-of-living increases, including a 26 per cent jump for home insurance.

That’s mostly because the province reapplied, as of July 1, a 15 per cent tax for those policies that had previously been scrapped.

Richard Alexander of the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council says the Liberal government should have cut spending as it fights a deficit of almost $2 billion.

He says hundreds of new tax and fee increases are bad for business and could drive residents out of the province.

Consumer insolvencies were up 51 per cent in May compared to the year before, and trustee Sean Stack says there will be more as the budget sinks in.