New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt made it from Ottawa to Fredericton in time to walk on stage at the annual State of the Province event and deliver her speech. Holt was at the First Ministers’ meetings in Ottawa Thursday, which wrapped up only hours before the event. Her flight was then delayed by over two hours, so, she began her speech by thanking New Brunswick-based seafood company Cooke Aquaculture, who let her “hop a ride” on their plane back home. “We talked to the integrity commissioner. We talked to the attorney general. We will be paying Cooke for the value of the flight, and Cooke will be then donating that money to the local food bank,” she told reporters. In her speech, she shared targets that have been achieved, and some that have not. While her government has seen an increase in the number of New Brunswickers able to see their health practitioner within five days, they haven’t reached their goal of seeing 79 per cent of residents attached to a physician or nurse practitioner. Right now, 72.5 per cent have a doctor or nurse practitioner. “That represents 238,000 New Brunswickers who aren’t attached to primary care,” she said, adding it’s about 40,000 more than this time last year. “That’s a number that keeps me up at night.” Holt brought Health Minister Dr. John Dornan up to speak to the health-care metrics, who said some areas are doing better than others. He said the city of Fredericton is their “biggest challenge.” The premier also promised a long-term care plan will be unveiled in February. In education, literacy rate goals have not been reached in the Francophone sector, but they have in the Anglophone and immersion systems. As for numeracy levels, the province is seeing decreases in both Anglophone and Francophone sectors. Holt promised by June 100 per cent of schools will have air-monitoring systems in place. ‘The picture is challenging’ Holt did allude to the looming deficit. While she didn’t give an updated figure, the last fiscal update in November had the deficit at $834 million. She said difficult decisions are on the horizon. “You will see next week we will be presenting options to the public on some of these difficult decisions,” she said. She told reporters after her speech that the civil service has been working on putting those options together. “We need to find places where we can save money. So, we have been engaging with the civil service on ways we could deliver services differently, things that we could stop doing, things that might be difficult, but decisions to close or change policy,” she said. It sounds similar to a move former Premier Brian Gallant made over a decade ago that he called strategic program review. At the time, he said everything was on the table. But Holt said that’s not the case this time. “Like an increase to the HST as was just described,” she said. “We’re looking for the kinds of savings, or the kinds of opportunity to generate new revenue that aren’t on the backs of New Brunswickers.” Holt promised an economic strategy will be launched in the coming weeks. She said the province needs to attract more partners other than the U.S., and focus on energy, natural resource and agricultural projects. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
