Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers (Staff photo)
New Brunswick’s Liberal party promises to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in the province.
Party leader Kevin Vickers says 20 per cent of nursing graduates immediately leave the province to work elsewhere and that 41 per cent of the existing workforce will be retiring in the next five years.
In order to stem the outflow of nursing graduates from the province, the party will look to make salaries competitive with those of other Maritime provinces.
“Our government will aggressively pursue the recruitment and retention of nurses in the province through a targeted tuition relief program for students enrolling into a postsecondary nursing school,” he says
He says a Liberal government will also ensure safe and secure working conditions for nurses, a primary concern which failed to be addressed by the Higgs government.
Vickers pointed out that the Progressive Conservatives made things worse, with moves like cutting close to $9 million in funding for nursing seats at universities.
