Liberals, Greens make large health-care promises, PCs talk HST
Holt, Coon and Higgs make stops in Oromocto, Fredericton and Edmundston on Friday
Latest
- Liberals promise $15K retention bonuses for nurses
- Greens pledge $380M annually for health care
- PCs reiterate plan to decrease HST
- Blaine Higgs's joke falls flat with Holt, Coon
New Brunswick's two opposition parties are staying busy with major health-care promises on Day 2 of the campaign, while the Progressive Conservatives touted an old promise to cut the HST.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt is targeting nurse retention with a promise of $15,000 bonuses, while Green Leader David Coon is pitching what he calls a "generational investment" of $380 million, annually, into the health-care sector.
And both leaders condemned a joke made by Blaine Higgs.
Liberals promise $15K retention bonuses for nurses
At a news conference in Oromocto, Holt promised to immediately issue retention payments to all nurses, nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses, if her party forms the next government.
The first payment of $10,000 would be made this calendar year, while an additional $5,000 would come the following fiscal year, she said.
"We're doing this to recognize the work and the service that nurses have given New Brunswickers through the last many years to recognize their value," Holt said, "And to show them that they have a partner in our government who will value their work, respect them, and care for them.
Additionally, new hires will also receive the payment if they commit to staying in the province for two year, Holt said. The estimated total cost of the promise would be $74.3 million this fiscal year and $37 million the next.
Holt said five-year-retention rates for nurses in New Brunswick are at 74 per cent, which she wants to increase to 80 per cent with the bonuses.
When asked about the high costs of the proposal, Holt defended nurse retention as a better long-term strategy and said it costs less than the travel nurse contracts under the Higgs government during COVID.
"Keeping the nurses you have is so much more efficient than the cost of bringing in new ones," she said.
"The cost of losing them is so much greater."
Holt said Higgs disrespects health-care workers, and pointed to an incident in 2019 when he told a protesting nurse she should work in Alberta instead for better wages.
Greens pledge $380M annually for health care
At a campaign stop in front of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, Green Leader David Coon said his strategy for health care would involve $1.5 billion over four years, to address what he called the "abysmal state" of health care.
"No more waiting lists is our goal. Think of this, there isn't a child in this province who is sitting on a wait list to access education in their schools," he said.
The fastest way to improve health care, Coon said, is to convert doctors' practices into "collaborative, team-based family practices." Coon said he would use $400 million, spread out over four years for these changes, and then $80 million for doctors' offices to hire assistant to help with paperwork.
He said he would also use $170 million annually to raise salaries and retain for nurses and health-care workers, and also offer full-tuition bursaries to medical and nursing school students who pledge to work in New Brunswick for five years.
Defending the cost of the program, Coon said he was willing to go into a deficit on the short term to fix health care.
"We can make a generational investment in health care to fix it after years of Tory and liberal neglect, or we can continue down the path of wreck and ruin of our health-care system, blazed by past Liberal and Conservative governments," Coon said.
PCs reiterate plan to decrease HST
In Edmundston, Higgs held a campaign stop at a car dealership to re-deliver a promise from July to cut the harmonized sales tax by 2 percentage points, from 15 down to 13 per cent.
"When fully implemented, the average New Brunswick family will be keeping an additional $950 of their hard-earned money instead of giving it over to government," Higgs said.
With the reduced cut, Higgs said New Brunswick would have the lowest HST east of Ontario. He also chided Holt and Coon for what he said was talking about cost of living without backing it up with actions.
Blaine Higgs's joke falls flat with Holt, Coon
Also this week, at a campaign event in Quispamsis Thursday evening, Higgs made what he called a joke that drew quick condemnation from opposition leaders.
Speaking at the end of the rally, Higgs said he would tell "a little joke that [his wife] Marcia said I shouldn't tell, but it was funny."
He opened by saying there was a campaigner who was knocking on doors for him back in 2014. She went to one door and Higgs said the woman who answered said, "I'm supporting Blaine." And the campaigner said, "Thank you very much, that's great."
Higgs continued the story. "And she started walking next door and the lady said 'Oh, you don't need to go there, she passed away a few weeks ago.'"
The campaigner, Higgs said, asked the woman at door what happened, saying "Oh I'm so sorry, was she sick long?"
And then Higgs delivered the punchline to the crowd.
"And the lady just said, 'Oh don't feel too bad, she was a Liberal.'"
The audience and most of Higgs's PC candidates laughed after the joke, while candidate Faytene Grasseschi looked uncomfortable.
"I know that's not an appropriate joke," he said after.
"It was funny and it is true," Higgs said during the laughter.
When asked about the comments on Friday, Holt said it was in extremely bad taste.
"I think that joke was in extremely bad taste, I think it demonstrates a complete lack of judgment on the premier's part, particularly because he was advised not to make the joke," Holt said.
"And he still thought, 'no no, this will be funny, let's talk about a partisan Liberal dying,' and let's laugh about it. I don't think it's becoming of the person who is supposed to be leading our province."
She said he hopes Higgs has since had a moment of "sober second thought" and will offer an apology.
Coon also condemned the remarks.
"It wasn't funny, and it was inappropriate. He's descending to a very dark place," he said.
At his event on Thursday, Higgs did not apologize when asked about the comments.
"I don't think we should overplay that. It was a real-life experience that one of our candidates, one of our volunteers had when knocking on doors, and I don't think we should make more than that of it," he said.
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story provided an incorrect figure for what Green Leader David Coon said his strategy would be for health care. He promised $1.5 billion over four years.Sep 25, 2024 2:14 PM AT
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