Premier Susan Holt is asking a question New Brunswick taxpayers already know the answer to.

Her government just launched a review of the province’s decade-old ban on natural gas development, with a decision expected by January.

Here’s the obvious answer: Lift the ban.

This is obvious when you start to look at the province’s books. The government’s latest fiscal update projects borrowing a record $1.66 billion this year. This is nearly a 20 per cent increase over what was projected earlier in the spring budget.

Now the debt is on track to hit $16.2 billion by the end of March. That’s almost $19,000 for every man, woman and child in New Brunswick.

Because the Holt government has refused to rein in spending, big government bills keep landing on taxpayers with interest.

Yet while the government piles debt onto taxpayers, a fortune in natural gas sits buried under their feet.

Estimates show that 150 to 200 natural gas wells would boost New Brunswick’s economic output by up to $1.8 billion and generate up to $354 million in tax revenue, according to a 2014 economic impact study. In today’s dollars, that tax haul is worth up to $478 million. And that’s before the province collects a single dollar in royalties.

Holt knows this case better than anyone. Back in 2013, as head of the New Brunswick Business Council, she released an economic impact study on shale gas and complained the province had received “a lot of information on environmental impacts,” but nothing on the economic side.

Instead, Holt pointed out at the time that development would bring in “a significant amount of money and a significant amount of jobs.”

She was right then and the economic reason for development have only gotten stronger.

If Holt wants to see what resource development does for a province’s bottom line, she doesn’t need a five-month review. She needs to take action immediately and take notes from other provinces who are leading the way in resource development.

Alberta expects to collect $23 billion in resource revenue this year. That’s 27 cents of every dollar the government takes in. It’s a big reason Albertans pay no provincial sales tax and some of the lowest taxes in the country.

Saskatchewan turned potash, oil and uranium into the backbone of its economy, and it’s pressing the advantage: The province’s budget aims to grow oil production to 600,000 barrels per day by 2030.

And Newfoundland and Labrador expects offshore oil royalties to cover 19 per cent of its revenues this year. Nearly one in every five dollars that pays for nurses, teachers and snowplows in that province comes from oil the province chose to develop.

None of these provinces got lucky. They made a choice. They developed the resources under their feet instead of leaving them in the ground. New Brunswick made the opposite choice more than a decade ago and taxpayers have been paying for it ever since.

Opponents will say the risks are too great. But provinces from British Columbia to Saskatchewan have regulated the industry for decades. New Brunswick can set strong rules, hold companies to them and protect its water and communities while the industry creates jobs and pays taxes. Natural Resources Minister John Herron says the government must be certain development is safe. Fine, be certain – but then get on with it.

Nobody should pretend this is a quick fix. Industry experts say it could take years for production to ramp up and for royalties to flow. That’s an argument for starting now, not for another minute of delay.

The review wraps up in January. But New Brunswickers don’t need five more months of study to understand what Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador already know: resources pay bills.

New Brunswick is drowning in debt while sitting on the lifeline. Lift the natural gas development ban.