New Brunswickers, get ready to ring in Canada Day by digging a little deeper into your pocket and wave goodbye to a few of your neighbours.

Starting July 1st anyone earning more that $30,000 a year will see their take home pay noticably drop as the provincial government attempts to collect an estimated $168 million from tax increases.

The government is picking up extra money from New Brunswickers everywhere it can. It has hiked user fees and the taxes on popular commodities so you pay more for a driver’s license, camp ground booking fees, gas and even beer, just to name a few.

These tax increases are a body blow to the New Brunswick economy which is already having a hard time finding its feet.

A single income earner making over $60,000 will pay $796 more in provincial income tax. This makes New Brunswick income taxes higher now than the national average. As you move up the income scale, the new tax increases mean that NB is even less and less competitive when you compare it to other provinces.

Even with all these tax increases, the budget deficit will increase to $479 million or about $650 per citizen.

Higher taxes and squeezing more money out of local businesses won’t solve New Brunswick’s fiscal problems; they will only make things worse.

Coming out of the fog of the US recovery, workers are voting with their feet and moving from high tax, fiscally bankrupt states to ones that are better-managed and offer lower taxes.

Just compare California to Texas.

California is a state that is crippled with high public debt. It has recently seen an out migration of people. In 2011, for every 100 people who came, about 120 left.

Many moved to Texas. For every 100 people who moved from the Lone Star state to California, Texas got 184 Californians. Most come because it’s cheaper to live – taxes are much lower, plus it’s easier to find a job. Texas’ unemployment rate is 40 per cent lower than California.

Think Canada is different? Think again.

According to Statistics Canada, almost 2,200 more people left New Brunswick to work in other Canadian provinces in 2011-12 than moved in. That is more than at any point in at last the last four years.

Alberta was the single biggest recipient of New Brunswickers – about 1,400 more packed up and headed there.

And like the US example, Alberta’s unemployment rate is more than half that of New Brunswick. A single income earner making $60,000 pays about a $1,000 less in income taxes, and there is no provincial sales tax. So Alberta residents are keeping more of their take home pay.

New Brunswick workers are voting with their feet in pursuit of jobs and better tax rates elsewhere.

New Brunswick cannot afford to continue to lose its workers to the rest of the country. How can we ever take advantage of the economic opportunities presented by the natural gas under our feet or build a west-to-east oil pipeline if all of the skilled workers are in a trailer in Fort McMurray?

RBC Economics latest provincial outlook says tax increases will dampen spending and hold back economic growth. If the government really wants to see the economy improve and their budget prospects along with it, they need to take the tax shackles off and promote an agenda of economic growth.

It’s going to be the only way to keep New Brunswickers in New Brunswick.