Good morning,
New Brunswick’s Health Minister Dr. John Dornan faced intense scrutiny in the legislature as opposition members raised multiple healthcare crises. Though just five months into his cabinet role, Dornan was grilled during the review of his department’s $4.8 billion budget. Green Party Leader David Coon was especially vocal, highlighting the severe lack of family doctors in Fredericton, which has overwhelmed the ER at Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital. Coon noted the ER delays are worse than in Moncton or Saint John. Coon also noted the hospital is using the same ER built in 1976, despite Fredericton's significant population growth, now serving over 120,000 people.
Housing Minister David Hickey is open to negotiating with the next federal government to scrap the sales tax on certain segments of New Brunswick’s residential construction market but opposes tax breaks for buyers of million-dollar homes. “I’m not interested in giving people who are paying a million dollars-plus for housing a break, but what I am interested in is that the $400,000 market, that $300,000 market, and that $200,000 market – if it even exists – is more attainable for folks,” Hickey said Wednesday. He supports cutting the provincial 10 per cent PST to help make housing more affordable.
Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin says New Brunswick has “built back up” its enforcement capacity against illegal cigarettes, despite inheriting the current setup from the previous Higgs government. The Liberals had long criticized the Tories for disbanding the Contraband Enforcement Unit shortly after taking office, citing its $1 million annual cost. Created by the Liberals in 2015, the unit seized over four million contraband cigarettes in its final full year, which they argued justified its budget. In contrast, the PCs later reported smaller seizures. Gauvin now claims enforcement capacity has been restored, despite earlier Liberal concerns about the unit’s cancellation.
