Liberal, Green leaders highlight health care on cusp of possible snap election

Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Leader David Coon are both highlighting access to health care as a top campaign issue on the eve of an expected early election call.

Holt and Coon previewed their party platforms in interviews with CBC's Information Morning Fredericton this week.

PC Premier Blaine Higgs was also invited to be interviewed, but CBC received notice he would not take part.

"Why aren't we taking care of the people who are caring for us? Why are there 74,000 New Brunswickers waiting to get a family doctor?" askedHolt.

"We may have a billion dollar surplus," said the Liberal leader, but there are also more people without doctors, nursing home beds, childcare spaces or homes.

A Liberal government would table balanced budgets and continue to pay down the debt, Holtsaid, but it would also put tax dollars towardimproving various types of care and building affordable housing.

It would take about $300 million to address the housing shortage, she said, triple what the Higgs government said it would spend in its recent housing strategy.

Holt said about 30,000 housing units are needed, and meanwhile, 11,000 households are on the wait list for social housing, first-time buyers are shut out of the market, and seniors can't find anywhere affordable to move.

"We have to get building," she said.

Property tax reforms could make affordable housing more attractive to build, and provincial tax could be removed on electricity bills to relieve cost of living pressure, she said.

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As election speculation heats up, the CBCs Jeanne Armstrong speaks to the Liberal Party leader about her priorities and what she thinks New Brunswickers care about right now.

The "Higgs carbon adjustor" could also be eliminated, she said, to reduce fuel prices by seven to eight cents a litre.

Small modular nuclear reactors are "definitely" part of the Liberal party's vision for meeting future power needs, said Holt.

The province needs a comprehensive energy strategy, she said, which includes wind, solar, SMRs, other nuclear and hydro.

Holt also took the opportunity to distanceherself from her federal counterpart, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"I think Trudeau's been in power for a long time. And I think people feel like he's disconnected maybe from the reality that they're living. And it's the same feedback that we hear in New Brunswick about Higgs," said Holt.

"One man in Fredericton cannot understand the reality of life in every corner of New Brunswick," she said.

People are feeling stressed, says Coon

Green Party Leader David Coon was also critical of the way Higgs and his PCs have governed.

Coon said he thinks many New Brunswickers feel disrespected including nurses, teachers, doctors, the LGBTQcommunity, Indigenous people and francophones.

"We're being pulled apart," he said.

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With rumblings of an upcoming election, the CBCs Jeanne Armstrong speaks with the Green leader about his priorities and whether hes open to teaming up with other parties in the legislature.

People are also feeling a lot of stress and anxiety, said the Green leader, over things like not being able to affordgroceries, not having a doctor or a nursing home bed, and having to deal with damage from "crazy weather."

With so many problems, it's "criminal" that the entire surplus from last year was "handed over to bankers" to pay down the debt, he said.

One thing that's needed in health care, said Coon, is a funding formula to ensure nurse practitioners and other health professionals can work with doctors in community health centres.

"That would eliminate our waiting list," he said.

Another thing he'd like to see is a rent cap.

It would give seniors security, he said, so they know they won't be forced out of their homes by an unaffordable rent increase.

Coon isn't against the idea of a tax cut if it's targeted to a specific objective, like getting more affordable housing built.

He generally favours higher tax on pollution, but said individuals are paying too great a share of the carbon tax, while industry is paying too little. Like Holt, he too would get rid of the "Blaine Higgs's carbon adjustor."

Coon has said his party would work with the Liberals if, together, they could outnumber the Progressive Conservatives in the legislature.

"We'd make sure the issues important to New Brunswickers are well addressed in effective ways," he said.

He suggested they might find common ground on initiatives aimed at cost of living relief, health-care access, environmental protections, climate change adaptation, senior care and affordable housing.

But Coon didn't pass up a chance to take a few jabs at the Liberals, saying they allowed the health-care system to fall apart, and took "no action" to make the province climate ready when they last held power.