New Brunswick Green leader launches his ‘budget with a heart’ tour

FREDERICTON – As New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative government prepares to table a provincial budget, the province’s Green leader is doing his own pre-budget consultation.

David Coon is calling the initiative his “budget with a heart” tour.

Coon says if the government put well-being at the centre of everything it does, it would produce a very different budget, pointing to recent budgets in New Zealand and Iceland as examples to learn from.

He says the budget should tackle such important issues as poverty, mental illness and high suicide rates.

Coon will visit 14 communities, starting Tuesday in Fredericton.

The government will present its 2020-21 budget March 10.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2020.