On the first day of campaigning of the upcoming New Brunswick election, both the Greens and Liberals made promises for the health care system.
Speaking in Oromocto, Liberal Leader Susan Holt promised to give New Brunswick nurses a retention payment.
In the first year of her term, Holt would give $10,000 to Licensed Practical Nurses, Registered Nurses and nurse practitioners with Vitalité and Horizon.
In her second year, she promised to give an additional $5,000.
She said part-time nurses would get a pro-rated bonus for their time worked, and any nurse who signs a two-year contract would get the full bonus.
Respecting nurses is key to solving the health care crisis, she said.
“We have heard their concerns and their challenges and seen the disrespect that they face continuously from this government,” she said.
Greens focus on family doctors, free tuition
The Green Party also made their own health care announcement shortly before noon outside of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton.
Leader David Coon said his party would spend hundreds of millions each year for the next four years on 70 different family doctor teams.
On top of that, he promised free tuition bursaries to medical and nursing school students looking to enter primary health care and who agree to work in New Brunswick for a minimum of five years upon graduation. He says they would hope to expand the program to other health care providers later.
They also want to give nurses and other health professionals wages more in line with Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
This, Coon hopes, will help solve the health care staff shortage in the province.
“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 for our health care system,” he said.
Coon said his increase in health care spending would be about the same as what Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs would lose with “his irresponsible cuts to HST.”
Higgs is visiting Edmundston to reiterate his party’s promise to reduce the HST from 15 to 13 per cent.
The 41st provincial election campaign officially started yesterday. Voters will officially head to the poles on Oct. 21, with advanced polling days on Oct. 12 and 15.
