Higgs refuses to acknowledge rumor

On the night before the New Brunswick budget was brought down this week, the Canadian Press reported the Alward government as planning to cut 4500 jobs; a drastic measure that unsettled many. However, on budget day, the announcement was actually 1500 jobs over three years through attrition, or 500 jobs a year.

Protesters from several different fronts at the Legislature this week said they suspected it was a ruse by the Alward government to leak the high number of 4500 job cuts to make the bitter medicine of the actual 1500 number go down easier. Those spoken to saw it as a tactic straight out of the Harper PMO, and blamed one of Alward's lieutenant's, Darrell Fowlie, who came to NB from Ottawa.

When the question was put to Higgs, he claimed ignorance and didn't comment.