Premier Blaine Higgs is not optimistic about the 2021 Francophonie Games proceeding in New Brunswick after the cost spiked from $17 to $130 million.
Higgs says the province will stand by their commitment of $10 million, and not a penny more, with a firm deadline for intentions of January 30th.
“For something that has gone up by $100 million from where it was, that defines it right there, we’ve talked to a lot of people about this, and residents in the province, north, south, you know, say we can’t do this as a province,” says Higgs. “This isn’t something we can do, nor should we.”
Higgs says that cost is too much for any province to reasonably absorb.
“These really need to be nationally supported, certainly a province our size, but a province can’t afford to do this on their own, or even with the cost at a 50 per cent split,” says Higgs. “So I think that in order to have security going forward, it needs to be nationally supported, and controlled.”
The federal government is standing firm on their stated commitment thus far, and are not willing to step in to pay the difference.
Higgs says they set the January 30th deadline because it wasn’t fair to keep dragging this on, keeping people in suspense, and spending money on an even that wouldn’t go forward.
Without providing a specific number, Higgs says while there would be a cost to cancelling the games, it would be substantially less than the cost of going ahead.
