'Negative' news coverage of affordability payments makes Higgs wonder why he bothered at all

With all the negativity surrounding the $300 "affordability payments," Premier Blaine Higgs is now wondering why he even bothered with the program. 

He said the $75-million affordability measure "should be seen as a good news story." 

"And if we're going to continue to kind of pick it apart to find who it did include and who it didn't include, and why did we do this, in my position you almost go back and say, 'Wow, with this much negativity around it, why did we do it to begin with?'"

His complaints over negative coverage of his affordability payments came during an interview with Information Morning Fredericton, where he also said that his office did not sign off on travel nurse contracts during the pandemic that saw some nurses paid as much as $300 an hour. He said he's called for an investigation into it.

Higgs also continued to refuse to say if he will call an early election, following the chief electoral officer saying that his election call musings in the fall cost taxpayers $1.7 million.

He said it's unfortunate that his affordability payments have received such adverse reactions. He did admit that communication could have been better.

They came with a requirement that recipients must be "working," which eliminated retirees. Higgs said seniors have already benefited from other affordability measures, such as increased benefits and social assistance rates. 

"And now we take this abuse that we missed these groups. In fact, the group we had missed is the working poor," Higgs said, alluding to the group now targeted.

"The point is it's going to be helpful, it's a positive injection into a family income, and I guess it should be seen as that, not about how many issues we can find fault with that," he said.

When asked if the payments were contingent on positive coverage, Higgs said no.

"What's the issue is with how much effort is placed in trying to find a negative aspect of it. That's what is kind of surprising, in how hard the media is trying to make it a negative story."

Higgs also called for an auditor general's investigation into Horizon and Vitalité's spending on travel nurses, saying the government needs to be prudent in spending to get the best value for taxpayers.

"And this is a situation where it seems like we could have got better value," he said.

Last week, deputy health minister Eric Beaulieu was questioned  before a legislative committee about the province's reliance on travel nurses.